The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Yordan Returns, College Athlete Bill Of Rights & Rockets 1st Round Matchup

Episode Date: August 14, 2020

So much larger than life. Yeah. You said. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. It's 12 o'clock in Meridian, Texas. Good. Nothing Astros. The savior?

No, not you, Joe. What are you doing here? Did you get lost? No. Shouldn't you be in the 18 prep room? Get out of here. I'm talking about Yoron-Friking Alvarez, baby. Alvarez lifts it pretty deep to center field.

Robles is racing back, still going back, looking up. See you later. And the Astros lead it two to nothing. Alvarez's first home run of the postseason. Yeah, it's been a long time for Alvarez. It's about time. Now I'm telling you. Hammer that ball to left center field.

Just kept carrying on a line. The hulking giant, left-handed DH for your Houston Astros is back, baby. is a long way away. It feels good, doesn't it, Joe? It feels so good. Oh, it's like such a relief. And it's, look, the bats have been hitting a little bit. We had Dusty Baker talking about it yesterday.

By the way, hi. Ross v. Real here on the Matt Thomas show. You know what? We played the Good Morning Strip. Can I hear that again, Brendan? That was just so good. Look, I talked about this before. I said it many of times.

You know, I just, I don't have the strength and bravado of a Matt Thomas. I'm not a PA announcer. I just don't have that in me. So when I try to go out, I just embarrassed myself when I try to say a good morning stripper. So thankfully, Matt Thomas on his road trip called us with it today. It's 12 o'clock in Meridian, Texas. Good.

So there you go. Matt Thomas starting us off right as he is road tripping to Lubbock with his son for his junior year of college. They just grow up so fast. That's the best year. I just remember. Because you turn 21, so you don't have to, you don't have to beg someone to buy you booze anymore. Just buy it yourself. Well, at some point.

Young Cameron Thomas playing in Little League, trying to convince me that Jake Cole was better than Kendrick Lamar. Just so much to learn for the young man and things to figure out. And now he's all grown up and he's in a junior at Texas Tech going to Lubbock. So congratulations to them, hopefully. Safe travels out there for the Thomas family. But we got stuff to get to here on the show. Without Matt, it's Brendan Riley. It's Joe George.

It's Rosvier Real. 713, 2,1, 2,1, 5.790. 7. 7.1.3.1. 1257. 90, you can send your tweets to at Brendan Riley underscore at Joe George Radio. If you want to congratulate the proud Papa, by the way, Joe, have we even had you on since you made the announcement? No, we have not talked about it in this show. Okay.

But yeah, I'm going to be a dad. So you're functional now. That has to feel good. Oh, yeah. Feel very good. So, yeah, babies do March 8th. Okay. So, got some time still. Wow.

Okay. Excited. We're going to find out the gender on Labor Day is the plan. Wow. So congratulations to the birth of Paul Ross George. That's great. I can't wait. I'm looking forward to that. And I'm very honored that you decided to take both of my names for your baby. Is Paul your first name? Yeah, Paul is my first name. Well, then your baby would be Paul George. That's already taken kind of, I guess. PG-13. Yeah, I talked about this the other day, or I've talked about this a number of times. My parents named me Paul knowing they were going to call me Ross because they thought Paul Ross sounded better than Ross Paul. Which is true. But it's come on people. Now I have to explain this. to everyone. Why did they just name you Ross?

Look, there was a lot of drugs in the 80s. All right. Sorry, Mom and Dad. No, anyways, what were we talking about? Yorna Alvarez is back. Joe George is here. He is a proud Papa. If you want to get, look, it's anything that goes Friday. We got a lot of things going on. We got people sneaking in side pieces to hotels. We got stuff going on in the bubble. We've got baseball stuff. We've got college football, Division I, sports canceled.

We got a ton of different things to get to. But first and foremost, literally, literally. though. I mean, getting your on Alvarez back, he's missed so many 18 games already of a 60 game season to have him activated and to hear that he's been hitting well over there in the Corpus Christi

with training environment or where the hell they're calling it over there. I don't care. We don't know. Do we have confirmation that he's going to be in the lineup today? We do not yet. Because here's the problem. Dusty Baker said Michael Bramley's not ready to play in the field yet. Okay. So that means,

Andy said Yordon's not going to play in the outfield. so only one of them can DH. Yeah, that's true. I think that's the conundrum that we're in. It's like even if Yordon Yeah, even if Yordon comes back in the lineup,

it means Brantley's gonna have to sit. Or if you don't want Yordon or if you want Brantley and it's batting their Yorda's up. Why don't you give Brantley the days off then? Why don't you just sit him out and start Yorda? Because we've talked about this and when we used to have A.J. Hinch on, we would kind of ask like when you have a D.H., is that like a day off?

He says it's about a half day off. They still have to do some workout. They still have to do a little sprinting and stuff like that. They're not doing field drills, but it's not a full day off. It's about a half day off. Why don't you get him right? Get him the full days off and then let Yoron Alvarez keep his hot swing going that he has in Corpus Christi going here in the Major League level.

Yeah, I completely agree. Now, the one thing, look, I'm not going to take too much stock into what's happening in Corpus Christi, man. Who's out there? Not either. Fernando Rodney. I understand. And here's not.

Hey, hold on now. It's just the reality. Rod's bringing the heat. Part of the thing, too, that we have to factor in is today and tomorrow, and I think on Monday, they're all lefties. That's true. Actually, no, the next three days are lefties for the Mariners. The Astros are going to face the starting pitcher that's lefty for the next three days. So that also probably factors into how much we're going to actually see Yordaun over the next couple days, at least at the start of the game.

Like maybe they'll start Brantley and then at some point they move. And my pitch hit form or something in a pinch hit situation? Yeah. Well, I mean, but Brantley's a lefty too, though. Yeah, but he's, he's one of the best hiters in baseball. That's true. He can hit lefties. Okay.

So maybe we won't see a ton of them this weekend, but he's at least back on the team. It just feels good, man, to have him back. And, I mean, I'm not expecting much from the news that Justin Verlander is throwing. But, I mean, after all the bad news that we've been getting and everyone dropping like flies, it's starting to feel a little bit better. You had Lance McCullors go seven innings the other day, and he would throw six and a third of no hit ball. And would have had a perfect game. He wouldn't have dotted somebody.

And then you have Zach Grinky doing what he did on Wednesday night, six and a third. And he was pitching very well. And he looked good. And he was locating everything, calling his own pitches, barking at the umpires, telling the batsmen what they're going to be seeing and stuff like that. Just an American treasure in Zach Grinky. And those are the two guys that are supposed to be the anchors of that rotation. And so the last run through, they've been pretty good.

So you're feeling good about that. Yeah. And even like with Christian Aviers, last start gets. gets kind of banged up a little bit for the first time. I still feel pretty confident that he's going to be really solid. And Granky, honestly, I think he kind of alluded to this and maybe even said it directly. I think he's messing with people. Like, I think he's not even doing it.

I think him and Maldonado know each other so well that they're calling out fake pitches. And like he's calling out signs that aren't even going there. Because I think they, I think Chandler yesterday on the A team said they even worked Yeah, they were in Milwaukee when he was there. So they might just know each other so well. He's throwing out fake signs like, hey, slider's coming or whatever for us. He was doing like the basic what we were doing in Little League.

You know, one's a fast. He was putting up at one and then throwing a fastball and a two was a curveball. Like when we were kids, two was a curveball. He was doing two and throwing the curveballs. I don't know what the hell he's doing out there. I just know he's an American treasure. He seems so much happier this year. Yeah, he does.

He doesn't talk to the media in person. Yeah, that's true. He can hang out in the stands away from his. teammates, even though he clearly likes him. He's like clearly joking in the dugout, having a good time. He seems very comfortable here now. Yeah, so, I mean, he had that rough start there, his first start, and he's talked about it.

It was one of the short program. Since then, since his first rough start, he's been spectacular for the Astros. So, I mean, he's got an ERA of 1.5 in his last three starts after giving up a bunch of runs in his first start. So Zach Rinkie is rounding in a form. Atlanta, McCullors. maybe there was something to the roof opening thing in Arizona because he threw three perfect innings

then everything opened up and he said he couldn't what did he say couldn't moisturize or something like that? I don't know what was going on. I don't care because after he goes seven, nearly seven no hit innings in his start following that, like maybe he is rounding in a form and maybe it was something with the air

and the moisture or whatever. And why the hell are they opening up the roof in Arizona anyways when it's like 100 freaking degrees out there? What are they doing? I think maybe they were doing. what they just tried to do. It was throwing off Lans McCullors. She's not, like they tell their pictures to be ready.

Hey, man, we're going to change this up. If you want to get a little extra, Pindar, even though that's not, or stick them or whatever the hell it is that they use. Definitely Pintar. So, so Yordon Alvarez is back. Grinky and McCullors are throwing well. And the Astros are going to get a good look at Kikuchi tonight. You want to talk about all of that.

713-212-5-790 is the phone number 7-1-3-2-5-7-90. We got a lot of things to get to here on the show. Astros reliever, Andre Scrub, will join the show at 2.30. We've got normally the Brian T. Smith hit on Fridays is at 2 o'clock. He's got very, he's busy. He's got things to do. He's moving and he's shaking. So he'll be on with us at 1230.

And we have you at 713-213-125-790. My name is Ross Vierreout. You're listening to The Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas. And we'll be back after this very short break. Lunch timers. Lunch timers. This is the Matt-Vee. Thomas show.

Anything goes Friday. Continues here on the Matt Thomas show. Without Matt Thomas. Ross via, Joe George, Bernie, and Riley with you. You can talk about anything.

713, 1, 2, 1, 2, 5, 790. Is the phone number 7132, 1, 2,000, 5, 790? Brian Smith of the Houston Chronicle coming up in about 13 minutes or so. And so now we,

if you had not heard the news, start spreading the news. You have Yordon Alvarez back into the fold for your Houston Astros. This is a lineup that is a bit pretty solid. They started off leading the entire world in runs and OPS and all that type of stuff that's since fallen off because of the very bad weekend there in Oakland and the small sample sizes. So I think last of my check, they're not, they're like in the middle of the pack as far as OPS

in Major League Baseball. But, I mean, Alex Bregman is really turning it on. he is he's been hitting like crazy and he gets on he's always going to get on base i mean he's got such a great eye he's always going to walk a ton uh even though you know national guy will try to say that it's because uh he knew what pitch was coming well he's walking like crazy again this year so you know obviously you're not paying attention to baseball if you thought all of a sudden that alex bregman and the astro's lineup was going to fall off a cliff although uh hose al tuve kind of has but he's had two days off should be back in the lineup today he's going to be okay right

Joe, you not saying? I think he's going to be okay. I think that we've seen this from him before where he's terrible and it's because he's pressing and he's swinging in everything and he's aggressive in the baseball. It's not just that. It's he's looked awful on the field. Yes. He's made major mistakes. I don't know.

I just feel like he's not all there. What do you mean? I don't know. I don't know if it's the hate. I'm not sure if it's the COVID stress with having a newborn at home. Like he just doesn't see. seem like Jose. He doesn't look like he's happy. He doesn't look like he's smiling. He's not anything that I would expect from Jose Al-Tube. He's not, he's been, he's made major mistakes in the

field. He's been awful at the plate. He doesn't look like Jose. He doesn't act like Jose. It's an imposter. Well, hopefully the two days off are going to be good for him. So then you have Yordon Alvarez back. And Carl's Corray has been hitting like crazy. And a lot of people have been wondering a couple of quirks with the lineup with Dessie Baker and what he's been doing with the Astros. He's had Josh Redick hitting second, which he's doing pretty well there in the second spot of the lineup. And then you have

had Carl's Correa, even though he continues to be one of the best hiters in the team, continuing to hit behind Yulee Gurriel, which only really happened last year when Carl's Correa was not playing well when he was dealing with all those injuries. For the most of the time, most of the time, you've had Correa ahead of

Yulee. And Yuley's doing a fine. He's not terrible. He's in like $2.50 or something like that. But I think, think it's interesting that Carl's Correa has not been bumped up in the lineup. And I'm also wondering when Yordon Alvarez comes back, where do you slot everybody? Well, I feel like when Yordon comes back at first, I think you put them behind Correa. I think you put them at like seven. And then as things get better, you would move them up.

But I don't, I don't get why Correa is still badging sixth. I know you don't really want Redick, like Redick Tucker Maldonado Straw to be the bottom half of your lineup. I think it does make sense to have Redick kind of in the mix with. your elite guys. But when Yordon comes back and Brantley is back and the lineup is normal with Springer and everything, like, I don't know if you can have your Gordon hitting seventh. There's something that makes sense. Like you want to have him in the best position to drive and runs. Now, the argument for him hitting him behind Correa and Brantley and Bregman and

Gurriel is that those guys are all getting on base. So he's still going to have plenty of opportunity to break games wide open left and right, no matter where you hit him in this lineup. That's the one advantage of how good they can be. At no point does Yordaun have to bat third or fourth just to get the most guys in. He can bat seventh and have as many opportunities. But don't you want Correa and Yordaun to get as many bats as possible?

Yeah, that's the thing. I mean, that's the thing in line up in 2020, the guy that you want to get the most at bats or the most played appearances, those are the guys you put up at the top. And so that's exactly what I would do. I mean, I think when everybody's healthy and it's all normal. I mean, look at this lineup.

It would be if everybody's healthy and good and all there, Springer, Altuve, Bregman, Brantley, Curea, Yuli, Yordon, Reddick, Maldonado. It's really good. Really good. That's a strong lineup. Just a hope that Yoran can come back and be his old self. Because he did struggle at the end of the season last year. And sophomore slums are very common in baseball.

He did not look like himself in the playoffs either. kind of lost out there. So hopefully when he comes back, he can hit the ground running and be back to his rookie of the year status. All right, 713, 2,1, 2,125. 790 is the phone number 7132, 1,2, 5, 790.

Against my better judgment, let's go to Howard in Memorial, who I think has glowing things to say. Howard thinks Jose Al-Tube is turning it around starting tonight, right, Howard? Number one, you have a right to ask, How old is Al-Tube, really?

We know that Poulos had... In other words, is he significantly older than his state of age? We know that Pujos had three birth certificates. He used whatever birth certificate he needed to get the big contract. Oh, so you think Jose Al-Tuvae is like 48? No, come on. Okay. How about...

Well, he's 30. How old do you think he is? They normally don't fudge it by more than a couple of years. I would ask whether he could he be 35 or 35? or 36 or 37. Oh, Christ. Howard, are you like 70? I haven't seen his bone density reports.

I don't know how old he is. Oh, come on. Don't be snide. The other thing is, is he damaged, and he's not talking about with the leg, and that he cannot power off the leg. The way he uses something is not right about him. And hasn't been right since he had the leg surgery. When did he have leg surgery?

Didn't he at the end of season have some surgery on his knee or his leg? That was two years ago. All right, too, all right. But what did he bat last year? 293 or something like that. And what did he bat the year before? He was early to mid-30s, right? Oh, Jesus.

Oh, Christ. 30s? No, I don't think he was hitting 030. All right. The point I'm trying to make is... 298 last year, 316 the year before. He OPS 9-03 last year, the year before he was 837. So more power last year.

He had the highest slugging percentage of his career last year after the knee surgery. All right. Have we seen the best that we're going to see about too big? Well, he's 30. It's possible. How many more MVP is going to hit? He's going to hit 3.46. Howard, before we get you out, can you say one positive thing about the Astros?

What are you hopeful about in life? Well, the most positive thing is you can pray that the Burland is able to come back in reasonably good shape before the end of the season at 85 to 90% of what he has been. Anything else? And you're able to get to the playoffs in reasonably good shape. All right, thanks. Thanks, Howard.

Hoselle, Tuvay, is 39 years old. He's never going to hit again. His knees falling off. Justin Verlander can't pitch. Brad Peacock, what's going on with him? Where's Jose Arcading? George Springer's wrist has fallen off. Turn this off. I can't do it.

It's Yordaunt Day, Howard. Yordaunt Alvarez is back. All right? Alex Bregman's hitting like crazy. Carlos Correa is amazing. Machete. is hitting three run home runs. Zach Grinky is throwing great.

Lance McCuller is almost through a no hitter. Can we get, can we at least get on the positive side for one second, Howard? Please. He sure have just accused Jose L. 2 there. He just said he fabric. His legs don't work and he fabricated his birth certificate. That's the stuff that Howard and Memorial is bringing to the show.

Woo. Man, they won two out of three. They're looking better. the pitching is better. Ross, what do you need for when Brian T. Smith comes on here in like seven minutes? What do you, what do you need for me? So the first question to Brian can be, do you think Jose Altuve fabricated his first? No, we're not bringing that up, okay?

Is it true that Albert Poulos has had three birth certificates? I never heard that. I think that's right. Okay. Can we ask Brian if Jose Altuve's legs work? Oh, geez. No, I don't want to. But do we need the medical opinion of Howard,

Memorial and he is a doctor. Usually he comes to us with his sources from inside the River Oaks Country Club, but what's going on with the Texans and stuff like that and how everything is ruined and everything is doom and gloom. I mean, my goodness, can you imagine having Howard as your doctor and breaking you in? He's like, yeah, well, it's

not looking good. I'm sure he's a great doctor. I'm sure he was fantastic, but I tell you, if I see Howardman Memorial MD and I'm looking on my registry from my insurance, I am not clicking on him. I'm just saying, all right, we're going to take break here on the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas. We got Brian Smith of the Houston Chronicle.

We're going to talk all things Houston Sports with him. We also got you guys on the phone lines at 7-13-1-3-2-1-2-5-790. We got Andre Scrub, one of the Astros relievers coming up at 2.30. So we've got a jam-packed show here on Sports Talk 7-9. There's going to be a short break here, but there's no reason to go anywhere. Us as fans, we as fans want to see that. Houston Sports Talk 790. From the owner to the coach to the players. Your home for your home teams. 1231, Sports Talk 790.

The Matt Thomas Show without Matt Thomas, Ross Villarreal, Joe George, Bertie Riley with you till 3 o'clock. Astros reliever Andre Scrub coming up at 2.30. Happy to talk with him. And came over to the Astros in the Tyler White Trade. So looking forward to hearing from him later on the show. But right now, I'm looking forward to hearing from Mr. Brian Smith of the Houston Chronicle. Brian, you're welcome. we gave you a week off from Matt.

It's always better when you do it, Ross. And I'm not just talking on radio. You know, I'd like to disagree, Brian, but I just don't think I can. All right, let's just get this started with the good news of today. Yordon Alvarez getting called up. He is activated. He is on the Astros roster. A couple of things to be shuffled with what's going to happen with Michael Brantley.

Is he going to DH or how quickly is he going to be in the lineup? But it has to be good news overall for the Astros who are in desperate need of some good news in 2020. 100%. I mean, I said, I think last week on the air, I said this week on our Houston Chronicle videos that we're doing at Texas Sports Nation, that the, you know, the rockets will drive you crazy. The Astros just make you drink more. And 2020, whether it's, you know, some serious heavy stuff, Prosecco, or Kool-Aid, you know, the bad Kool-Aid, the super sugary Kool-Aid that's not good for you that you don't like. The Astros have just been, I mean, completely unpredictable. Nobody, you know, for as much Ross as we've talked about the 60-game season and all the issues, nobody in the world could have predicted what the Astros would be going through, what they'd be dealing with, you know, the lack of starting pitching, the lack of the bullpen, but they're still in it. And you add Jordan Alvarez to this lineup.

He was the player outside of everyone else in the organization. I was the most excited. I mean, just just very simple, excited to watch this year, because in a 60-game season, if he gets hot, he can have 15 home runs. And for him to not be with the team for almost the entire first start of the season, but to get him back with about 15 days before the trade deadline, this is your acquisition. I mean, this is your big move.

Now you have to hope that he comes up and he immediately starts clubbing home runs and raking. But we've seen that before. And there's nobody like him on that roster, as deep as that lineup is, Ross. There's nobody like him. when he's connecting and he's locked in. And it's going to be such a unique situation for him because there won't be any fans.

It's obviously it's the pandemic. It's Corona Baseball. There is the obvious potential that he could jumpstart this team. Pitching is still going to be an issue all year. But if they can put up five, six, seven runs a game, and it's harder to pitch around, you know, player A, player B, player C, he can carry you for a month. Yeah, and that's what I was going to ask you, Brian, about the,

just how do you see the state of the Astros now? You get Yorda Alvarez back. You look at the last two starts from Lance McCullors and Zach Granky, both of them pitching very well. I mean, I think we could see where it looked like we couldn't see it a week ago. Maybe we can see where this Astros team can be good to very good and maybe even start contending. I'm hesitant just personally to say very good or contending right now because you're missing your ace, you're missing your closure. Now, the Verlander thing's going to be very interesting. I saw the report for MLB.com just watching that play out.

You know, the Chronicles reported that he is out for the season. The vet, that's obviously a huge, huge wildcard, but the Astros haven't been able to give any concrete information about Burlander since this all started. But I'm hesitant to say contend until this team can start to put it together, until Jose Altuve can start hitting, until Josh Reddick can be a little more consistent. You know, on and on. I mean, they've dealt with injuries to the lineup. But look, you have Altuve, you have Bregman.

you have Alvarez now, you have Brantley, you have Gurio, you have Correa. That is one of the best lineups in baseball, which is why it's been so crazy. Even when all the injuries were all, this team lost five straight in a 60 game season, that they were, you know, six and nine, that they're still, as we speak, in third place in the AOS, right? I mean, there's no right now in terms of making the playoffs, but they're almost a third of the way through their season. So McCullors was encouraging.

He's got me more consistent. Grinky looked like a number one starter. I mean, you know, he's had those moments. maybe he's starting to put it together with Verlander out. So the potential is there, but I've got to see this team start to look a little like the 17, 18, 19 team before I started getting really excited about them again. All right, Brian Smith of the Houston Chronicle here on Sports Talk 790. Brian, let's go ahead and pivot to the Rockets. They know they have the game today.

It'll be interesting to see what goes on with the starters. We know that Russell Westbrook is out. And that's the wild card. We know that they're locked in against the Oklahoma City Thunder. What is your confidence level with the Rockets against the Thunder? under without Russell Westbrook for a couple of games and then with him. It is the unknown. I mean, there's no way anybody could have any certainty about this series right now.

I mean, James Hardin's the best score in the NBA. They, if this team is hot and they're hitting their threes, they're one of the most dangerous teams in the NBA. But every good Rocket fan knows this year, as crazy as Hardin's numbers have been again. I mean, Westbrook, you know, since January, often, has been their best overall player. Ross, if he misses one or two games, they can survive. I can still see them winning the series if they're hot and Hardin plays his butt off for seven games without Russell Westbrook.

Let's say he misses three games, four games. There's no home court advantage. It's not like you have to go back to OKC. I mean, you're taking out a huge, huge advantage theoretically in the series, broke on the city without home court advantage, obviously. It's 50-50. That impacts the rockets as well. I still believe the Rockets will win this series, but Ross, if Covington and Eric Gordon, especially Eric Gordon.

I mean, Eric Gordon has been getting paid way too much money, wanted that extension, got it. Injuries are injuries, but it's been like this entire season for him. If he can't step up, the Russell Westbrook out, they're not winning this series. I still think they have enough talent to win it. Mike Dan Tony's got to step up. You factor in small ball. I mean, this is the most loaded series in the NBA in the first round, and all of a sudden, Russell Westbrook's not playing.

So they can get down 2 to 1, get Westbrook back. I still think they're win. But if they're down 2-0 and you're not getting Westbrook back to game 4, I mean, this team season can be over. And Ross, if this team's season's over, and I'm writing about this on Sunday's Chronicle, and they lose in the first round. When you have James Harden and Russell Westbrook,

the same season, you traded Chris Paul to Oklahoma City. Mike D'Anne's gone. or more you should be gone. At some point, Tom and Fertita's got to realize that what we have just isn't good enough. Hopefully, that doesn't happen to this team. And that's the question, Brian. It's kind of a, where do you go from here? Let's just say, obviously, I think if they get would, if they would win this series, and then they get to the Lakers and let's say somehow they defeat them and then maybe lose to

the Clippers. And they could. They very well could. Westbrook, if they're clicking, I think they could definitely beat the Lakers, especially you don't have to go to L.A. I mean, if you're the lesser team, in some ways not having a home court advantage for the better team on paper completely plays to you know and your favorite in the Florida bubble.

Yeah, I'm saying I think they could make the Western fine. The ceiling is very high for the rockets but let's say that they go to the kind of the middle ground where they get out of the first round and then they fall in six or seven games to the Lakers. Where do you think that Tillman goes from there? Well, there's a couple huge factors that are completely unpredictable

that were not there. It's a great question, Ross, that were not there five months ago. Number one, the coronavirus pandemic. Number one, Tillman-Srita, you know, a multi-billionaire. I guess it's, what do you, I mean, five years ago, we would have said it was a humble brag. If you say you can afford to lose a billion dollars because you've got a few billion more, I think during a coronavirus pandemic and, you know, layoffs and on and on, that's a little tone-deaf. But, you know, you can say that when you're billionaire.

So there are a couple complete unknown. that were not there five years five months ago i know this right now the houston rockets underperform last year right and the houston rockets have underperform this year and and james hardin you know for all the pros and all the cons you have the best score in the NBA he does play defense the focus can come and go it came and went during the regular season but you cannot it's kind of like it'd be like wasting to sean watson the entire time of his career you know they traded away the Henry Hopkins, but they did start to put a line together, and they started to, on some level, build the team around him.

You cannot, if you're a Timun for Tita and you buy this team for Les Alexander, waste the end of the prime of James Hardin's career, and you just can't keep trying to think that it's going to hope that it gets better next year. Maybe we won't have this conversation in a month, Ross. Maybe they beat the Lakers in the second round. They're in the Western Conference finals. It all clicks. They're in the NBA finals.

But if they fall short, that's two straight years under Dan Tony. they've fallen short. You have a, you have, he's literally a lame duck. He could walk away at any point. Helman has not backed him, and there's going to be the back and forth with the agent on and on, but the rockets have not backed Antoni. And Dan Tony, most importantly, has not attached two cells to the Rockets long term. I'm not saying you have to blow it up, but you have to change it.

And if it doesn't work, maybe you want to try to play real basketball for 82 games and not go small ball. You know, I mean, that's, this is the most frustrating, exciting, perplexing, fascinating team and the NBA. And you have

so many back stories and you have so much going on at one time and the potential still there, but Ross, it could all fall apart

and they're basically, I guess, building around Hardin in Westbrook, but I don't know how you do that when those two guys

make that much money for this much longer. They have to win now. I can't wait to get my hopes up as a rocket's fan going to be disappointed yet again, Brian. All right, let's, before we get you out, Brian,

appreciate the time as always. What do you got going on at the, hold on, Houston Chronicle.com? I know Cron.com is no more. We've been thinking it every two weeks now, but Houston Chronicle. com, and look, we've been covering Texans, Rock, Astros, U of H, all the high schools. I mean, everything, college football, you know, nonstop or five months during the chronic virus pandemic,

and we're still doing it. Every time I come on, I appreciate it, but there's only one thing I'm going to pitch, you know, plug, and that's Houston Chronicle. dot com. All right. Thanks a lot, Brian.

Appreciate the time. We'll talk to you next week. Thank you, Ross. All right, Brian Smith of the Houston Chronicle. You can find him on Twitter at Cron Brian Smith. We're going to take a quick break here on the Matt Thomas show without Matt

Thomas. You guys want to react to anything he said. We'll talk some Astros. We're talking some Rockets. Yordon is back, baby. It's Yordon Day. 713, 2,1, 2,500. The phone number 713, 2,1,000.

Back in a second. Hi, this is former running back of Herschel Walker. You're listening to Matt Thomas. on Sports Talk 790. To the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas. My name's Ross Villarreal. You can find me on Twitter at SportsRV. You can find Joe George at Joe George Radio.

You can find Brendan Riley at Brendan Riley underscore. If you want to talk to us that way, as somebody tweeted in, we were talking when Howard was calling about Jose Al Tuve's birth certificate, T. Big sent me a picture of the, you know that meme, the guy that says, I am 12 and it's a picture.

Yeah, that's Jose Al-Tubei. birth certificate. But anyways, we're back here on the Matt Tomah show. We got a couple of you on the phone lines. So let's go ahead and get to you. 713, 2125-790 is the phone number talking all things, Astros, Rockets. And it isn't anything goes Friday. So if you have anything you want to bring to the table, you are welcome to do so.

But let's go ahead and get it started off with Alex in the gallery. I want to talk some Astros. What do you got, Alex? Hey, how you doing? Good afternoon. I'm well. Great. Great.

You sound well. This is how I see things for the Astros. We can have great pitching starters. We can have great hitting with everything clicking. But as long as you keep pulling starters that are not tired in the seventh inning and you bring in relievers that give away the game, we are not going to come out on top, plain and simple. So we need to do something about this.

And the old style was you let your pitcher continue pitching until he's tired or got into trouble. We don't do that anymore. And it's killing us. It's killing us. At least take them into the 8th and get a good closer. That's what I have to say about that. All right, Alex, thanks a lot. Well, they did have a good closer, but he's probably going to have Tommy John surgery.

And on the pitch thing, I know in Grinky's third start, he was at like 84 pitches and they didn't send him back out. there. And one of the things that you're trying to do, first of all, guys that are going to throw like 130 pitches. That doesn't really happen in baseball in 2020 or 2019 anymore anyways. And second of all, you have these guys who are just not on their pitching programs who don't have their arm strength built up. And they're just, you're having pitchers drop everywhere like flies because their arms aren't ready. So why would you go out there and risk it and continue to pitch these guys? It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. If you keep sending them out there and they get hurt,

then you're over-extending them and it's your fault. If you pull them early and games get blown, well, then you're an idiot and you need to keep them out there. So it's kind of you can't, it's a no-win situation for Dusty Baker in many cases. It's a zero-win because Dusty Baker knows that that's the dumbest idea ever. Hi, Mark Pryor and Kerry Wood. Oh, come on, man.

Back in that, back when Dusty was the manager of the Cubs, he would ride Carrie and Mark out to 120 to 125 pitches per start. They all say it's not Dusty Baker's fault. I agree. It's not. That's how it was. But it wasn't just those guys. He had issues in Cincinnati.

He had issues in Washington. Like, you can't, these guys are not built to even do what they were doing in the early 2000s and mid-2000s. It's a completely different game. You can't ride these guys out until the eighth inning. They're taking them out for a reason. It's a 60-game season. They had a short ramp up.

There have been 58 plus starting pitchers and relief pitchers go to the injured list this year across baseball. There's a reason why they're coming out early. And yes, the bullpen's not great at times. And yes, it means that sometimes the Asher is going to have less of a chance to win because you have to take your starter out. But it's better in the long haul to take them out in the seventh versus extended them to the eighth when they don't really need to be. And your bats should be good enough to carry you over the finish line. Yeah, I mean, I think when you're already shorthanded because of the loss of Verlander, or you haven't had Jose Arciti,

who you're hoping was going to factor in. The last thing you want to do is overextend these guys. So I understand where Dusty is, and you can not overextend them, and then you have the bullpen hold. Just a lot of times, even though early on it was pretty good, it's been shaky as a flight.

The bullpen just hasn't been holding lately. Exactly. And I think the big thing is, like with Yordon coming back, if Altuvae gets right, we've been talking about this whole first hour pretty much. The offense should be incredible. At some point,

that should also help balance out your bullpen. That when you get to the, other team's bullpen when you knock out their pitchers early, you should be able to take advantage of that. And you should be able to see the offense before that A series. Yeah, that's your hope is that you're just going to have beat people over the head with your bats and pitching that's just good enough. If you can have plus pitching and great a great lineup, we've seen that that can win. That has signed the 2017 Astros. I mean, their pitching rotation was way better in 2018. And you know what? They didn't win the World Series. They lost to the Red Sox,

who, by the way, had a transcendent all-time great offense in lineup. They had a guy win the Sai Young. Rick Porcelo won 20 games. He had like a 4-5 ERA. Yeah. That's how good the Red Sox lineup was that year. Yes. They made Rick Porcelo a Cy Young pitcher.

Because they were just the hashtag run support. All right. And that's what the Astros formula is going to have to be this year. It just is the way it is with all the injuries and everything going the way it is. All right, 713, 2,1, 2, 5.7. Let's get to AD in the Southwest side here on the Matt Tom. What's up, A.D. Hello, how's it going?

It's going well. What do you got? I'm doing well. I was listening to you. It's my first time on the show. I didn't even know 790 was there talking about baseball and stuff. But I'm glad to be here. I just want to comment on the fans factor, and I feel like it's going to be, it's going to work in the favor of the Astros due to the hate that they're, you know, expected to get for the, you know, 2017 season,

I really feel like they can redeem themselves and show up and play at a high level, especially when you take out that fan factor. I mean, I think it's a huge break, and I really look forward to see how they can come up big in the playoffs. All right. Thanks a lot, AD. Appreciate it. Yeah, I wonder, well, we had Blake Taylor on a couple of weeks ago and asked him what he thought about not having the fans. And maybe it's a benefit to some of these young pitchers. Well, definitely going to ask Andre Scrub about it coming up later on the show at about 2.30. But I think it's interesting. I think maybe it doesn't matter as much for the veteran guys, but maybe for the younger guys, it helps calm the nerves a little bit. Yeah, I think it makes them feel like they're just back at a minor league ballpark when there's little to no fans there. And they're just playing baseball. These guys are used to. to this. These young guys are used to little than no fans. They're used to a runner on second base.

Like they're used to robot bumps. Like they're used to all these weird things. It's the veterans who this is all a new experience for them or something they haven't done in 15 years. Yeah. And you know, it's funny because on the other side of the coin, now I don't know how much I believe him, but LeBron James and in the NBA, when's the last time? That guy has been a megastar since he

was like an eighth grade. When's the last time LeBron James didn't play in front of a crowd? It had to be at practice. He said, he said the other day he's not sure the last time. Yeah. Like I mean, who knows? Because even like,

even when he was a freshman when he was a freshman in high school, there was a buzz about him. Even when you go to a terrible, like, school, like, you're, you got to have, like, the worst high school basketball program in the world. There's going to be some people in the stands. The stands are, even when the stands are full. Yeah, there's mom and dads in the stands. Like, at minimum, like, no matter who you are,

there are parents in the stands. These guys are literally playing for nobody. Except for their teammates. It's weird. Yeah. That's where, I mean, people have talked about that. They have to get their energy from the dugout or from the bench. And that's what they're having to do in the NBA.

And you can hear when Patrick Beverly wants to scream dame time when Damian Lillard is missing free throws and set him off. You can hear that too. All right. We're going to take a break here. That is the first hour. Just flow by here on the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas. My name is Ross Vireel. A couple of you guys got on the phones there.

If you want to continue that trend, 713, 21, 2, 1-2-5-790 is the phone number on an anything goes Friday. 7-1-3-2-1-2-7-90. Our number two coming up here in just a minute here on Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show. Number two of the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas on a Sports Talk 790. Ross v. Real, Joe George, Brendan Riley with you. As Matt Thomas continues to traverse West Texas, he is on his way to Lubbock. And I hope things are going well.

He's taking his son up to Texas Tech for his... Let's see. For his junior season, junior year. At SportsMT. Lunch break in Hiko, Hiko. Hico, Texas. So far on the drive, Cam and I have listened to Migos, Jeff Leppard, Travis Scott, Bob Seeger, Gunna, and of course, Manilow. Sounds like they're alternating.

Are they alternating song by song or like 30 minutes by 30 minutes? What do you think? I've been on road trips with Matt Thomas. And when he just starts pumping that 70s on 7, sometimes like, all right, that's... I feel like you got to go like a 25 to 30 minute rotation. This is Matt on every song that comes on 70s on 7, Sirius XM Radio. A great song, turns up the knob. Next song.

Oh, oh, love this song. Turns up the knob. I'm like, really? You know the whole, like, Barry Manilow catalog? I don't even know it's like a Fleetwood Mac, Barry Manilow, Neil Sedaka. I don't even know what else. It's just like, oh. Passing all of that.

Hit after. hit after hit. Well, now that I'm here, maybe next time we do a road trip, we can put him in the old people car. And you and me can, and MC. Yeah, well, normally we would be road tripping to like Big 12 media days. Okay. Which Matt is bitter because the OUSID would never give us Lincoln Riley.

Well, that made him mad. Yeah, there's no Big 12 media days to road trip to, unfortunately. But we like to go to New Orleans or to Lake Charles every now and then. So that's going to be the thing. Since I am recovered from the coronavirus, I just got free. rain to go wherever I want, right? I can go to the casino. But they don't have poker tables over there. So everything else... It's probably still really high

to start, right? Like $25 blackjack tables? Yeah, I think they're really high limits too. So I'm not feeling the casino life anyways. But all right, does anything go Friday here on the Matt Thomas show? If you have not, start spreading the news. If you have not heard, Yordon Alvarez is back, baby.

He has been activated. Will he be in the Astros lineup tonight? That remains to be seen. We'll have to see on that one. But that's great news for the Astros to get the lineup getting lengthened by a guy who was rookie of the year and hit what, like 27 home runs last year in not even 100 games, I think. So Yordan Alvarez back. That is great news for the Houston Astros. And I can start seeing, now calling them a contender, obviously, would be a little much.

But you can start seeing where say, maybe this is a good team. If these trends are going to hold, but it's day to day, it's week to week with the Astros. I mean, started off the season feeling pretty good when they won three. four from the Seattle Mariners. And then everything was okay. And then the weekend against the Oakland days is when I really started to feel like things were slipping away. But bounce back against the Giants.

Yeah, it was the Giants, but you still won two. It's a baseball team. Right. You have to beat the bad team. Because they're going to be playing the Mariners. They're going to be playing the Angels. The Rangers don't necessarily scare me. So the Astros just have to take care of business against a competition.

That's not going to be great. And that's, look, you said, it's the Rangers, the Angels, the Mariners, the Diamondbacks, the Giants. You're going to play a lot of games against those teams, and you have to really, you have to win all of those series. That's going to be the most important thing. If the Astros are going to make the playoffs this year, if they're going to get that two seed in the West

or somehow push for the one seat in the West, which I don't think is going to happen. You've got to win all those series. You've got to beat the bad teams. So that way, if you do get kind of beat around a little bit by the Dodgers and the Padres and the Rockies and the A's, you can still make the playoffs. You can still get hot at the right time.

And really honestly, Ross, like, it's just going to come down to, like, the last month of the season. I mean, I know it's only a 60-game season, but they play the Rangers seven times in their last, like, 15 games. Like, it's going to come down to those games. Screw the Rangers. I think, honestly, I think September 15th is there's a three, starting a three-game series,

and the last four games are the 24th to the 27th, all in Arlington. I think it's totally on the table that the Astros are like fighting for a playoff spot with the Rangers in those four games. We'll see. I think that's how bad the rest of the division.

It's going to come down to something like that. So Frambervaldez on the hill for the Astrosstrand. What's your expectation from? Last time he went out there, he was damn good. Seven innings pitched. Only gave up a couple runs, but only one of them earned. And that was the 3-1 loss to the Oakland A's. Unfortunately, the Astros couldn't get anything going on the bats.

camera was that the was that the Saturday game again Frank Frankie Montas or something like that I think so so his ERA for the season is 2.04 there hadn't been any Framber alert since his first time going out there so I'd like to just see him repeat that

it'd be nice it'd be the worst thing it'd be a nice appearance like I mean Keith looked really good so far yeah that curveball that he's got he's getting strikeouts like crazy he got nine strikeouts then start against the Oakland A's all right 713 212 57790

is your phone number speaking of Astros pitching. LJ. in the Heights wants to talk about that. What's up, LJ?

I'm doing pretty good, man. I appreciate you having me on. It's been like six months since I've called in. But listen to

the Astros dude, this is such a weird season. Like, when they went to seven-inning double-headers

and they expand they, first of all, I think they expanded the playoffs way too much but I have a hard time viewing

this season as anything other than like an exhibition or a joke anyway. I don't think anybody's going to really take the championship

overly serious. So, you know, from that standpoint, like, I totally get the idea of like, hey, let's be careful with our pictures, you know, we don't want to injure anybody in a season. You know, that doesn't really matter all that much. But, you know, the flip side of that, and I'm curious to get your thought on this, because, you know, if it's only a 60-game season, I don't really see there being much of a danger of, like, overworking your pitchers. I mean, short of getting injured in a game,

but once they're ready to go, it's kind of like, I mean, what are we saving them for? You know, 50 games. I'm not talking about saving, LJ. Yeah, I think more of it's like, you don't want to ramp them up too quickly. Once they get set and once they're ramped up, like in the last start you had Lance McCullers through, or early in the season, he threw like 90 pitches, but in the last start, I think 94 pitches for Zach Grinky. So it's about ramping up and not speeding up that process more than saving them to me. Yeah, no, I get that. I get that. It's such a weird thing for the Astros because I feel like they're probably eager to get back out and perform well. But again, it's just like, I don't know. The season doesn't really matter all that much.

I'm excited to see Alvarez back. I don't know what the deal is with our TD you kind of have an idea of a timeline. I was real excited about our kiddie coming on the last season. But if we don't get something figured out in the bullpen, I mean, you know, I kind of did echo the previous caller. It seems to me like none of it. I got really, you know, you guys were talking about what it takes to make the playoffs. Honestly, like when there's this many teams saying a playoff, like, who really cares,

man, you either have a team that can compete with the best or you don't. And if we don't get the back end of the bullpen figured out, you don't have a team that's going to compete, you know, at the highest level in the playoffs. And anything other than that is like, I don't know, who really cares? is kind of my, with this specific season, it's sort of my attitude, I guess. Yeah, I appreciate the time.

You all have a great weekend. Yeah, I get you, LJ. Thanks a lot, man. Appreciate it. And that's, I don't know, man. That's the interesting thing for me. I think a lot of people in Houston feel that way after Verlana got hurt. They're like, why should I care?

And I think people's perspectives have just changed because of one injury. I don't feel that way because injuries happen in baseball. And there's no way to know that Verlander wouldn't have gotten hurt anyways in 162 game season. I mean, he wouldn't have missed part of it anyways. at least two months, right? Yeah. So I get LJ's point of like, well, like they expanded the playoffs. They're doing the seven inning doubleheaders.

First of all, those don't affect the Astros. So like there's been no positive cases in Major League Baseball since July 30th, except for the St. Louis Cardinals. No one in the AL West or the NOS is playing doubleheaders. Everything is full steam ahead. The only thing that's happened to the Astros is a crazy amount of injuries. So I know the expanded playoffs are weird. But frankly, the only reason why the Astros are going to be in the playoffs.

Well, and this is also a thing, too, is this was supposed to be, if this were a full regular season, this would be, I mean, I don't want to say the closing of the window for the Astros, but at least the closing of an era for them. So this is a season that you would want to go all in and chase the championship. Josh Reddick is going to be a free agent next year. Michael Brantley is going to be a free agent. George Freaking Springer is going to be a free agent. And honestly, I don't know if any of those guys are going to be back on the Astrox.

roster. So we keep talking about this line. Look how long this lineup is. Look how great it is. Three of those nine pieces are free agents after this season. So if you're going to be going for it and you're going to say that we're going to win off the backs of our lineup, you can't say, if you're saying, oh, well, let's chalk up this year. What you're saying there is we'll get them next year. We don't know if we can get them next year. We don't know what the lineup is going to look like next year. So this is a year that the Astros have to try to seize their opportunity. I completely agree. Justin Verlander may never pitch for the Astros. again. All those outfielders.

Asuna may never pitch for the Astros again. If you're able to get close to the playoffs, I know we're talking in the next 17 days you have to make a major trade with what or to who or for who. I don't know. But I just, I hate

Rob Manfred so much that he called it a piece of metal. Because I feel like it validates everyone's frustrations with this baseball season that the commissioner of baseball said it's just a piece of metal after the Astros cheated. And it's not. It's a World Series.

And honestly, I don't care if whoever wins a World Series this year, they earn it. Everyone's got the same opportunity to win a World Series this year as they do the year before. Everyone's got the same opportunity to make an 18 playoff. Yes, it's expanded. Yes, it's different. But still, it's still a championship. Yeah, but first of all, well, yeah, Carlos Correa said the same thing. We had him on, or he was on the 18th?

I think that was an interview. He said that before he came on the 18th. Okay. Well, he said it doesn't matter. It's not a... Or maybe he would... Did we have him on the Matt Thomas show? Oh, no, you know what?

That was on the A team. You're right. Okay, so yeah, on the A team, he was asked. And he said, you know, it's everybody's got the same chance and everybody's... So it's a championship. And the Rob Manfred thing, though, what he was trying to say was, if you take the championship away from the Astros, you're ripping a trophy that's a piece of metal. They still won the championship. Everybody got a little upset.

Who was it Justin Turner or whoever? I sweat and bleed for this trophy. It's not just a piece of metal. That's not what he was saying. He was saying that the Astros, if you look at the games, the games are still in the archives. The numbers are still in the record books. The Astros played those games. No matter what you want to say, it's like ripping the Heisman trophy from Reggie Bush.

Reggie Bush still won the Heisman in 2005. You take away his piece of metal. He still had it. And that's what I think his point was. But anyways, we have to take a quick break here on the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas. My name is Ross V. Real alongside Joe George and Brendan Riley. If you want to get in 713, 2, 1, 2, 5, 790 is the phone number. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90.

We've got Astros reliever. Andre Scrub, yet to give up a run this year. We'll talk to him about how stellar he's been, and his relief appearances coming up on the Matt Thomas show. But in the meantime, we've got a short break here, but don't go anywhere. Load up on those napkins, straws, ketchup, hot sauce, mustard. Oh, and don't forget duck sauce. It's the Matt Thomas Show for lunch on Sports Talk 790.

Let's go old Notre Dame. Oh, we're talking about name changes again? Why? What are they changing their name to? I'm pretty sure if someone said leprechauses. They're going to stop being, oh, they're the fighting Irish. Because their mascot. Is the fighting Irish not, is that offensive?

I don't know. It's not like they're the drunken Irish. Excuse me? You don't think fighting Irish is offensive? I don't know. Is it? I'm just wondering. As someone with the last name Riley, I feel like I stayed.

And for all Irish people, when I say I've never been in a fight in my life. Yeah, but I'm, my last name is George, but when my family came from overseas, it was, oh, George. I'm 80% Irish, so I disagree. Are you offended? No. Well, isn't it to mean like you got a fight in spirit? It's like the fight in Texas A and and Aggies. No, I think it's like drunk Irish people fighting.

Well, no, it's about the fighting spirit of the Irishman. I don't think that's really what it's about. Which one of you does the best Irish accent? Oh, I don't do accents. Oh, let's go. Come on. You got to do one a little bit. Do it, Joe. There's no chance. What do you got? Nothing. Oh, come on. Brendan? What was that?

That was me, like, decided whether or not I was willing to try it. That sounds like you just discovered a hemorrhoid or something. Are you okay? That was me saying I don't know about that. Okay. Well, neither of you have Irish accents. I'm disappointed in both of you. Do you have one wrong? They're always after me. Lucky Charms. All right, there's my terrible Irish accent.

All right, so we came back with the Notre Dame fight song there because we want to talk a little college football. I mean, my goodness, what is going on? So the breakdown is there's no Mac, there's no Mountain West, there's no Big Ten, there's no Pac-12. There is going to be the Big 12, the SEC and the ACC. But now, boys, you have yesterday a couple of big news items coming down with the NCAA. First of all, Mark Emerit says Division I sports for the fall are canceled, except for for the NCAA, except for football. So Division 1, canceled.

Division 2 canceled. Division 3 canceled. College football, the one that makes all the money, looks like we're still going to try to go forward with that or at least some semblance of it. I guess. Are they going to be? I mean, I think the Big 12, the ACC and the SEC, that's the one I was forgetting.

There you go. I think they're all going to play this year. I think they're going to try to. This is the thing. And this is the long-term effects of this. Right? Because you always, uh-oh, you got an irresponsible hot take about this? I think the Big Ten's still going to play football this year.

Really? How? I think they're going to change their mind. Oh. Okay. I know it sounds crazy, but I think the Big Ten's going to realize they made a huge mistake and they're going to try to play this year. Hmm.

Like, they don't have to play until October. All right. They're still practicing right now. This is the problem. This is what they need to worry about. This is the long-term. Con. The short term is we need this money from our football games. We need this money from our TV deals because they fund the rest of our athletics. And if we're going out this money,

it's going to be very hard for us to continue to fund these nonprofit sports. This is the long term, though. Ed O'Bannon and his lawsuit against the NCAA, which played out over many years and his antitrust suit for name and image and likeness. I think you're going to have one play. All you need is one player. All you need is one guy to contract the coronavirus, maybe even to get to get ill, and for them to be able to try to prove that it happened during a football activity, during a game, during a practice, and then you have them sue. If you're Alabama, if you're an SEC school, if you're a Big 12 school, if you're Texas, how do you sell in a court of law that we are there? This is a nonprofit organization. This is athletics is just for the students. And as the

NCAA says in their mission statement, we're here for student athletes, students first, we're worried about their safety. How do you sell that and get in front of a judge and say, that's all we care about, but you moved forward with this? I just don't understand how it can hold up. I don't understand. What's the difference between the coronavirus and CTE? That's another lawsuit. The NCAA is going to have CTE lawsuits. They have CTE lawsuits. There was a settlement in 2019. Well, then the difference is one is an infectious disease, but... Yeah, but one is caused by the sport you play.

And basically, because you're right, Ross, like, I agree with you. Someone's going to sue, and their argument is going to be because of football, I contracted the coronavirus. Now, there's the issues. There's no way to prove that, right? There's no way to prove with students living in a dorm, going to class, going to the cafeteria that other students are going to go to and playing football all at the same time that they're going to say they're able to contract it from football.

There's just, there's no way. They're going to make the argument, no, there are probably people in your math class that weren't wearing a math. Well, this is what Charles Adams, who is a lawyer on 950 down the dial, he was on with Gordy and Indy earlier this week. And he said, a good lawyer can prove it. A great lawyer is going to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. And so, and when he said that, it kind of opened my eyes.

Interesting. Because, I mean, obviously he's a legal, he said a great lawyer like me. So, I mean, it was funny. So I love Charles Adams. He's always really level-headed on all these types of things, and he's a lawyer. So he knows these types of things. When he said that, and I was driving in, listening to that, that kind of opened my eyes. Yeah, that changes my perspective a little bit.

It changed my perspective as well. When I was like, oh, my goodness. So I guess because this would be a civil lawsuit. And so that's, you just need the, as we talked about, deflating all that, preponderance of the evidence, more likely than not. So if you're having that type of scenario, man, this just seems. like a disaster waiting to happen for the entire amateurism charade and for for college football as we know it. I think them now there's no right answer. If they don't go forward, people are going to lose their jobs. People are going to lose millions of dollars. People with athletic scholarships

aren't going to be able to play, you know, the crew team, the volleyball teams, the badminton team, whatever. So I just don't know. That's my, that's just all I'm trying to say is I don't know. Yeah. I mean, like I think it makes sense to go forward and play. I think there is an argument to be made that you can make it so it's safe to play. When you look at what's happening in baseball right now, they have a 0.03 positive percentage of tests in the last week. It's only one team, the Cardinals. We've had two major outbreaks.

That's it. And I know, like, yeah, they're outbreaks. They're going to happen. The University of Rutgers, they had to quarantine basically. They had 30 players test positive. They had basically quarantine their entire football team. But they're like, they still have a football team? Can't they just fold that thing up?

Please get them out of the Big Ten. It's such a joke. But the University of Mission, Michigan, they just canceled their football season. They just said Brett McMurphy, they have a 0.02% positive rate. I don't know how you cancel your sports when you're showing you have a 0.02% positive rate.

Look, it's, I don't understand, like, it pisses me off the way these schools are handling this because you cannot convince me that it's safe to have students on campus, but it's not safe to play football. There is no way you can allow students to be in a fraternity house or in a dorm or being in a classroom. They shouldn't be probably.

Exactly. So why are they canceling football? Like why are they canceling football? Liability. They have a lot. But what happens when you go to a frat party and the frat parties aren't sanctioned by the school? You're right. But the housing is.

Are they? I thought they're off campus. It depends on the school. Some schools are different. And not everyone is like big D1 schools. Everybody's going to have lawsuits on their hands. What you're telling me? Think about the beginning of the pandemic with cruises, right?

They were going around cruises like crazy. So we're going to have that in dorms. You're going to have dorms where entire dorms are going to get put into lockdown. They're going to have this same problem, whether it's football players or normal students. So if you're telling me it's not safe to play football, it shouldn't be safe to play to have students on campus at all. And I think it should go both ways. And that's what these presidents in the Big Ten and the Pac-12 have chosen to ignore. They're saying, yes, we want our students on campus.

campus because we want their tuition money, but I don't really care about the football program, weird decision. So we're going to not play. I just think it's a mistake and maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think there's anything wrong with trying and then stopping if it's a disaster. Yeah, I just, there's going to be outbreaks. There just has to be. What happens if, what happens if the SEC and these and the big 12 and the ACC get through their football season with no problems? What happens to the Big Ten in the Pack 12th? They look like idiots. And there's going to be outbreaks.

Sure, sure. You're going to have cancel games. I would almost guarantee there's going to be an outbreak. But if you can contain it the way baseball has, you'll be okay. All right. So continuing on the college football angle in the next segment, there was a proposed bill of rights in Congress yesterday talking about college athletes. That's another thing that might threaten the future of college sports as a whole.

We'll talk about that next. You guys want to get in 71321. 1-257-99. 1-2-5-7-90. Tweet's at SportsRV and at Joe George Radio and at Brendan Riley underscore. Back in a second. One more college football talk.

Back to the Matt Thomas show. On Sports Talk 790. For the corner and let's go! Home of your Astros. It is the Matt Thomas show. But there is no Matt Thomas. At least not today. He was out yesterday.

And today moving his former bouncing baby boy He's growing up so fast. His junior year at Texas Tech. It just makes me feel old. So I don't know how it makes Matt feel, but Matt is on the road to Lubbock. He gave a report on his Twitter today at SportsMT. All the various bands that he's been listening to,

they went with Migos, Def Leopard. Brendan, your thoughts on Def Leopard? Are you a big Def Leopard guy? No, thank you. Can you name me one song there? It's not bad. Travis Scott, Bob Seeger. Gunna and Barry Manilow.

I was going to say I don't think I'd enjoy the music. Do you think they're going song by song or 30 minute blocks? No, there's no way. This is the rule to me, Brendan. I don't know. Have you been on a lot of long road trips? Did you drive here from Michigan? Did you have to drive your stuff?

Yeah, I did. How long as that? 19 and a half to 20 hours. The longest road trip I've ever been on is nine hours. And our rule is always whoever is driving gets to control the radio. But if you're driving for six hours, do you think that's fair? Is there a limit to can somebody else call the radio? Or is it always whoever drives?

is the guy who controls the radio. No, if you got a long trip like that, I think you have to split it up. You kind of let the rains go a little bit. How about if it's just two hours to Lake Charles? That's the question is, what's the number? Yeah. I think two hours, it's the driver. Yes.

I'm going to say four hours. Because I always like to be the driver. I'm just weird. Do you like to drive or do you like to be in the passenger seat when on a road trip? I used to like to be in the passenger seat, but that's kind of changed. I just get to, it's not that I don't trust other. Well, it's that I don't trust other people. I just like to be in control of the situation.

and so I like to be the guy who is driving on a long road trip. But I'm free reign with the radio for the most part. Unless it's something that I just can't stand and it's gone on way too long, I don't normally have issues on a long road trip. So we were asking, Joe, do you think that, so Matt said he had the Def Leopard, Migos, Gunna and all that. Are they going song by song or like 30-minute blocks? What is the protocol on the Thomas Road trip?

I feel like you've got to go in a normal road trip. I think you go like 25 to 30 minutes at a time, right? Okay. And I know, I know Matt is dropping off his son for school. And normally you're like, yeah, like this is,

you know, it's your junior year. But you're still the dad. You got to show your dominance here. Yeah. Like, I'm playing my music. He's got to make alpha moves on his son.

Yeah. I'm about to make some alpha moves, son. Here's some Barry Manlo. I have a boy. If I want my music for an hour, I get it for an hour. Matt's making alpha man,

alpha male power modes with Barry Manelow is what you're telling me. Yeah. for 45 minutes at the time and then and then he gets 20 minutes no like 10 oh wow maybe just two songs no i think you can't when your son gets to that age we almost just lost out on our tacos because i forgot your name is paul oh i didn't know that was public oh come on bro all right let's uh let's go to the phone lines go to david and baytown holding longest what's up david oh yeah as far as the college all right i know you so uh let's move on 712125 790 is the phone number Will in downtown, what do you got?

Hey, guys. I just calling after hearing all this Joe Kelly talk, you know, and everyone knows he was a member of the Red Sox before the Dodgers. And it's interesting that if you look at Moogie Betts, who batted 264 in 17, then all of a sudden in 18, when the Red Sox were accused of stealing signs, he about $3.46. In 19, he goes down to $2.95. Still a great average, but 51 points lower. and now he's a member of the Dodgers and you don't hear the Dodgers talking about that or anything.

It's very clear. I mean, you know, you bet it at 3.46 that year and it seems like the Dodgers who are given all the smoke to the Astros. But I never hear anything about that, that strange, strangely high batting average for bets that year. Yeah, well, one thing, Will,

is he is hitting 319 and OPSing over 1,000 this year, but it is 19 game sample. But I get you, Will, and that's the... I mean, he had three homers last time. Yeah, that's the thing. though, is the inconsistency, the funny thing to me is that everybody, there's Houston Asteris tour

and how a history, Astros B-Counter, Twitter account and all that type of stuff. Well, the Astros got dinged for, for cheating, as they should. There was a commissioner's report. So did the 2018 Red Sox. In the 2018 Red Sox were multiple-time offenders. So where is all

the hate and vitriol for the Red Sox? Where is Red Sox shame tour on Twitter? Where is Red Sox Bean counter? Where is all, all of all of the fervor and hate and all that for those teams. And the 2017 Yankees got dinged for cheating. And obviously, the Astros took it an extra step. The Astros deserved the punishment.

And the Astros deserve some of the hate that they're getting. Probably not all of it because it's all getting laser focused on them. And you have this letter that's being sealed by Rob Manfred that's going to do, quote, significant reputational injury to both the Yankees and Major League Baseball. And nothing's happening to them. nobody's upset about them nobody's really all talking about it it's all focusing on the Astros

and it kind of doesn't make sense to me if you're going to throw at 17 Astros because of that shouldn't you be throwing at 18 Red Sox everybody's on that team yes everything is so hyper focused on the Astros people are missing the big picture of what happened in baseball

they're trying to pretend like the Houston Astros are the only team that stole signs that because Jose Altuvae is starting slow. It's clear that he's, you know, clear he cheated. When you look at the facts of what is happening in baseball, like I just, this tweet literally just popped up right in front of me. Gary Sanchez, 104, Glaber Torres, 161, Cody Bellinger 171, Christian Yelich, 175, Max Muncie 176, Anthony Rendon, 180, Jose Altuve 187. Those are all all stars. Yeah. Every single one of those players is an all star. They're all cheaters or something. And like half of them are MVP's.

so it doesn't mean they're all cheaters. It means they're starting slow. Now, there are teams that are getting a pass for sign stealing. And people are just pretending like the aster's being the only one. People are ignoring the Yankees. People are ignoring the allegations against the Milwaukee Brewers. Who tweeted that out, though, what you were talking about? I want to find that.

Clint Shane, at Clint Shane on Twitter. Thanks, Clint Shane. You're an American hero. Like there are, it's just, people are ignoring the facts. Like, no one here in Houston denies the fact that the Astros cheated. No, I'm not. But there is just this hyper focus on one team when every report is that multiple teams were doing this, that other teams besides even the three that have been found guilty in any way of cheating,

that there are more than those three teams that are stole signs. And just like there are players on the Astros and like, And just like the caller pointed out about Mookie Betts with the Red Sox, there are players on the Brewers. I always bring up the Brewers because I know for a fact they significantly stole signs. I tweeted about it last night. Like when you look at Christian Yellich's numbers, he only hit 300 once in Miami.

Now, he was in the high 280s, but all of a sudden, in two years in Milwaukee, he jumped up to a 326 and a 329. There was an incident with the Cubs and the Brewers where John Lester's on the mound, and they're calling in signs from right field at home. It's clear as day. You can see him do it on television,

and the Cubs stop it, it turns in this big deal. U. Darvish calls out the Brewers on Twitter. They get into a fight on social media. But now Christian Yellich is hitting 167. Like, I think Christian Yellich clearly benefited from stealing signs in Milwaukee. But people just want to focus on the Astros. Yeah, I just find it curious. It's just weird.

It's so weird. Do you think they would all want to pick on the Yankees are the biggest brand and the most loved and the most hated team in the country? And like nobody says anything about this. It's like if they only focus on Barry Bonds. Yeah. Instead of like McGuire. instead of everyone.

And Roger Clemens, Andy Codd, etc. It's weird how the fans in the media are viewing this scandal so differently than steroids. When it's clear, it's very clear that it's widespread through baseball, but they're hyper focusing on one baseball team instead of the bigger picture just because, well, my fires is a snitch and no one else is. All right. That is Joe George. I am Ross Vio.

Real Matt Thomas is out, but it is still the Matt Thomas show. A couple of hold will get to you at 71321, 5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2. one, two, five, seven, ninety. Final hour of it, anything goes Friday, is next. Back to the Matt Thomas show. On Sports Talk 790. For the corner, and let's go!

Home of your Astros. It is the Matt Thomas show, but there is no Matt Thomas, at least not today. He was out yesterday, and today moving his former bouncing baby boy, he's growing up so fast. His junior year at Texas Tech. It just makes me feel old. So I don't know how it makes Matt feel, but Matt is on the road to Lubbock. He gave a report on his Twitter today at SportsMT.

All at various bands that he's been listening to. They went with Migos, Def Leopard. Brendan, your thoughts on Def Leopard? Are you a big Def Leopard guy? No, thank you. I don't think I enjoy it. It's not bad. Travis Scott, Bob Seeger, Gunna, and Barry Manalo.

I was going to say I don't think I'd enjoy the music. Do you think they're going song by song or 30-minute blocks? way. This is the rule to me, Brendan. I don't know. Have you been on a lot of long road trips? Did you drive here from Michigan? Did you have to drive your stuff? Yeah, I did. How long is that? 19 and a half to 20 hours. The longest road trip I've ever been on is nine hours. And our rule is always whoever is driving gets to control the radio. But if you're driving for six hours, do you think that's fair? Is there a limit to can somebody else call the radio or is it always whoever drives is the guy who controls the radio? No, if you got a long trip like that, I think you have to

split it up. You kind of let the reins go a little bit. How about if it's just two hours to Lake Charles? That's the question is what's the number? Yeah. I think two hours, it's the driver. Yes. I'm going to say four hours. Because I always like to be the driver.

I'm just weird. Do you like to drive or do you like to be in the passenger seat when on a road trip? I used to like to be in the passenger seat, but that's kind of changed. I just get to, it's not that I don't trust other. Well, it's that I don't trust other people. I just like to be in control of the situation. And so I like to be the guy who is driving on a long road trip. But I'm free rein with the radio for the most part, unless it's something that I just can't

stand and it's gone on way too long. I don't normally have issues on a long road trip. So we were asking, Joe, do you think that, so Matt said he had the deaf leopard, Migos, gunna, and all that, are they going song by song or like 30 minute blocks? What is the protocol on the Thomas Road trip? I feel like you got to go in a normal road trip, I think you go like 25 to 30 minutes at a time, right? Okay.

And I know Matt is dropping off his son for school. And normally you're like, yeah, like this is, you know, it's your junior year. but you're still the dad. You got to show your dominance here. What? Like, I'm playing my music. He's got to make alpha moves on his son. Hey, I'm about to make some alpha moves, son.

Here's some Barry Manolo. I have a boy. If I want my music for an hour, I get it for an hour. Matt's making alpha male power modes with Barry Manelow is what you're telling me. Yeah, for 45 minutes at the time and then and then he gets 20 minutes. No, like 10. Oh, wow. Maybe just two songs.

No, I think you can't. By the way, we almost just lost it on our tacos because I forgot your name is... Paul? I didn't know that was public. Come on, bro. All right, let's go to the phone lines. Go to David and Baytown holding longest. What's up, David?

Oh, yeah, as far as the college... All right, I know you. So let's move on. 7-1-3-1-2-5-7-90 is the phone number. Will, in downtown, what do you got? Hey, guys. I just calling after hearing all this Joe Kelly talk, you know, and everyone knows he was a member the Red Sox before the Dodgers.

And it's interesting that if you look at Moogie Betts, who batted 264 and 17, then all of a sudden in 18, when the Red Sox were accused of stealing signs, he about 346. In 19, he goes down to 295, still a great average, but 51 points lower. And now he's a member of the Dodgers. And you don't hear the Dodgers talking about that or anything. It's very clear. I mean, you know, he batted 346 that year. and it seems like the Dodgers

who are given all the smoke to the Astros but I never hear anything about that that strange, strangely high batting average for bets that year. Yeah, well, one thing, Will, is he is hitting 319 and OPSing over 1,000 this year, but it is 19 game sample, but I get you, Will, and that's the...

Yeah, I mean, he had three homers last time. Yeah, that's the thing, though, is that the inconsistency, the funny thing to me is that everybody, there's Houston Asteris tour and how a history, Astros Bain counter, Twitter account, and all that type of stuff stuff. Well, the Astros got dinged for cheating, as they should. There was

a commissioner's report. So did the 2018 Red Sox. And the 2018 Red Sox were multiple time defenders. So where is all the hate and vitriol for the Red Sox? Where is Red Sox shame tour on Twitter? Where is Red Sox Bean counter? Where is all of the fervor and hate

and all that for those teams? And the 2017 Yankees got dinged for cheating. And obviously, the Astros took it an extra step. The Astros deserved the punishment. And the Astros deserve some of the hate that they're getting, probably not all of it because it's all getting laser-focused on them. And you have this letter that's being sealed by Rob Manfred

that's going to do, quote, significant reputational injury to both the Yankees and Major League Baseball. And nothing's happening to them. Nobody's upset about them. Nobody's really all talking about it. It's all focusing on the Astros. And it kind of doesn't make sense to me. If you're going to throw at 17 Astros because of that,

Shouldn't you be throwing at 18 Red Sox? Everybody's on that team? Yes. Everything is so hyper-focused on the Astros. People are missing the big picture of what happened in baseball. They're trying to pretend like the Houston Astros are the only team that stole signs that because Jose Al-Tube is starting slow, it's clear that he's, you know, clear he cheated.

When you look at the facts of what's happening in baseball, like I just, this tweet literally just popped up right in front of me. Gary Sanchez, 104, Glaber Torres 161, Cody Bellinger 171, Christian Yelich, 175, Max Muncie, 176, Anthony Rendon, 1801807. Those are all all stars. Yeah. Every single one of those players is an all star. They're all cheaters or something.

And like half of them are MVP's. So it doesn't mean they're all cheaters. It means they're starting slow. Now, there are teams that are getting a pass for sign stealing. And people are just pretending like the Astros. is the only one. People are ignoring the Yankees. People are ignoring the Red Sox. People are ignoring the allegations against the Milwaukee Brewers. Who tweeted that out, though, what you're talking about? I want to find that. Clint Shane, at Clint Shane. Thanks, Clint Shane. You're an American hero.

Like, there are, it's just, people are ignoring the facts. Like, no one here in Houston denies the fact that the aster's cheated. No, I'm not. But there is just this hyper-focused on one team when every report is that multiple teams were doing this, that other teams besides even the three that have been found guilty in any way of cheating, that there are more than those three teams that are stole signs. And just like there are players on the Astros and just like the caller pointed out about Muky Betts with the Red Sox, there are players on the Brewers. I always bring up the Brewers because I know for a fact they significantly stole signs.

I tweeted about it last night. Like when you look at Christian Yellich's numbers, he only hit three. 300 once in Miami. Now, he was in the high 280s, but all a sudden, in two years in Milwaukee, he jumped up to a 326 and a 329. There was an incident with the Cubs and the Brewers where John Lester's on the mound, and they're

calling in signs from right field at home. It's clear as day. You can see him do it on television. The Cubs stop it. It turns in this big deal. U. Darvish calls out the Brewers on Twitter. They get into a fight on social media. But now Christian Yellich is hitting 167. Like, I think Christian Yellich clearly benefited from stealing

signs in Milwaukee. But people just want to focus on the Astros. Yeah, I just find it curious. It's just weird. It's so weird. Do you think they would all want to pick on the, the Yankees are the biggest brand and the most loved and the most hated team in the country? And like nobody says anything about this.

It's like if they only focus on Barry Bonds. Yeah. Instead of like McGuire and so, and Roger Clemens and yeah, it's weird how the fans and the media are viewing this scandal so differently than steroids. When it's clear, it's very clear that it's widespread through baseball,

but they're hyper focused, seen on one baseball team instead of the bigger picture just because, well, my fires is a snitch and no one else is. All right. That is Joe George. I am Ross Vio Real. Matt Thomas is out, but it is still the Matt Thomas show. Culp you on hold will get to you at 713-212-5-790.

7-13-1-2-5-790. Final hour of it. Anything Goes Friday is next. Is the Matt Thomas show. 2 o'clock here on Sports Talk. 790 final hour of three of the Matt Thomas show. out Matt Thomas, Ross Villarreal, Brendan Riley, Joe George with you. We've got Astros reliever Andre Scrub.

He is no scrub for the Astros, and he's a guy. Well, never mind. I'm not going to go to the whole lyrics of the TLC song, but Andre Scrub will be here at 230. Definitely looking forward to hearing from him. And in the meantime, speaking of the Astros, it's Yordon Day. Yordon Alvarez has been activated from the injured list. Will he be in the lineup tonight?

We don't have any confirmation on that yet, do we? But I saw that Brian McTaggart tweeted a poll. Will Yordon hit a home run tonight? And 75% of the people are saying yes so far. So it seems like a guarantee, but I wonder if he's going to let. You don't bring him up and not play, right? Well, but yeah, I guess you don't bring him up and not play. So Michael Brantley's going to sit out still with his lower leg injury that he's having?

I would think so. I think you call him up in the first day you play him. Okay. So, I mean, normally we'll get the line. lineup, it's an 8-10 start. It should be coming out pretty soon here to see where he, okay, well, predict right now. Where's Yordaun going to be in the lineup?

Seventh. Seven, I think, is right. Because he's not going to move Correy up, even though he should. So, Correy is still in sixth. I'm getting kind of annoyed with Correy batting sixth. Are you? Yeah, he's hitting, I mean, he's OPSing, like, over 900. He's hitting well, he's been the best hitter that they're,

yeah, we were talking about the sign ceiling thing yesterday and everybody getting upset about Jose Al-Tuvay and his batting average. You never see them bring up Carlos Correa And the fact that he's been tearing the cover off the ball the entire season There's this thing with like just like and not I'm not saying Dusty's because of his age The the old school mentality Joe Maddenedie Baker Don Maddenly these guys they set a lineup And they say we're just gonna work through it and they just and they just keep it

Like even though Jose's struggling he I don't know if it's they're afraid it's gonna damage him mentally Which I think is a really weak excuse but I don't get why he's still batting leadoff. I don't get why Correa is still batting sixth. It's one of my biggest pet peeves about baseball as a whole, just the mindset of like, oh, well, this is our lineup. We're going to stick with it and we're going to get through it.

I don't get that. Sometimes I think it would make sense to, you know, let's see what Jose Alcatue can do when he's batting behind Correa and Bregman. See if there's more confidence in that way. Yeah, he's not going to move Korea. I'll give you another one. How about the, we had it, what was like a week ago when there was a lefty versus lefty. It was Deakman for the A's.

And then Kyle Tucker was coming up. And you're like, in your mind, ABC managing robot, lefty on lefty matchup, we cannot do this. We must put in a right-hander. And then Abraham Torrow goes and hits and he doesn't do anything. And then you have to burn, you burn Abraham Toro, and then you have to go to Garrett Stubbs and put him in the outfield. Yeah. So you burn two players just to get a lefty on righty matchup. when, I mean, at that point, Kyle Tucker was hitting okay.

But, I mean, are you going to say that Kyle Tucker versus a lefty is that much more of a detriment than Abraham Toro as a right-hander or as a switch hitter versus a lefty? I would think no. And, like, analytically, I can see why they would make those moves. And I think that's just like the, that's where I miss baseball. Like, I miss the baseball of just before where, like, you have these crazy, like, the shift. It's so, so drastic for some of these guys. And, like, the fact that they can't hit it down the third base line as a lefty when everyone is standing on the right field besides the third baseman, it drives me insane. And the fact that guys can't hit lefties when they're lefties is, it's brutal now.

It's, and it's like, they're just, like, groomed to never have to do it. It's, I don't know if it starts in high school or in the minors, but I would rather Kyle Tucker face as many lefties as possible. and if you can't, like, I get why you take him out of the lineup. But at some point, if you want to be a great baseball player, you have to hit lefties if you're a lefty, aka, what's up, Michael Brantley? Yeah, that's the thing, too. And if you look at his career splits now, it's not a huge sample size. Kyle Tucker's hitting like 327 against lefties.

So why take him out? Yeah, exactly. So that's this stuff, kind of ABC type of stuff that managers do sometimes. It makes you a little curious like you were talking about with the lineup. But the good news is there. you have Yordon Alvarez. Is he going to be back in the lineup tonight? Most likely, I would guess. Otherwise, there's not a whole lot of reason to bring him up, but you do have, I don't know, give Michael Brantley a day off. Give him another day off. There'd be three days off for him. If he's still and he's having leg issues and stuff like that. Jose Altuve probably back in the lineup. So hopefully two days off were enough for him to clear his head and get back to hitting the way that he can because the lineup is going to be the thing that is going to have to carry the day for the Astros. We know that. that. There's just too many injuries in the starting pitching and in the relief in the bullpen. So good news for the Astros today. 713-212-5-790. The phone number 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90.

We got Ronald the southeast on the phone lines. What's up, Ronald? Yo! How you doing today, man? I'm having a beautiful Friday afternoon. I hope you're doing the same. Yeah, I am. But I want to just come in, kind of on the sign stealing. You know how people call in and say, well, you know, if you know pitch coming, you still got to hit the ball. But I think most people who play baseball know if you know what

pitch coming, it's a lot easier and hit the baseball. And one more thing I want to come in on on there. Am I stupid? But isn't it as simple as if you take a team stealing your sign, instead of fastball being number one for the inning, can you change

to number four and they can't steal your sign or it's not that? Yeah, no, you can absolutely change the signs up. And that's what people do when guys are on base. And that's what Zach Grinky was talking about when he had to meet with Martine Maldon. Thanks for making the call, Ronald. And that's the other thing. We don't even know how much it helped.

And Carlos Correa mentioned it as well that they couldn't do anything in the World Series. They tried to, he said they tried to cheat in the playoffs, but they couldn't because it's the playoffs. Everybody's changing up their signs. Everybody's really paranoid about changing everything up, and they just couldn't get a read on anything. So you do when you know, first of all, teams had heard about the trash can banging, when the Danny Farquhar thing happened and you can go to the data. It's the, what is it, signcheatingscandal.com or whatever the hell the website is.

You can see that literally the day after that, the Astros pretty much stopped doing the trash can banging for the most part. So it was only from about the end of May, like May 27thish or something like that, where they ramped it up into September. Then it was done after that. And then in the playoffs, everybody is switching up their signal so much that you just really couldn't do anything. Yeah.

So the fact of the matter is if it helped at all, it didn't help much and it didn't help in the playoffs. And it's the same thing that the Red Sox were doing. It's the same thing that the Yankees were doing. And everybody just wants to target the Astros over everybody else for whatever reason. And I get the point of like, yeah, it makes it easier if, you know, you know what's coming to hit it. But yes, you still have to hit it. But pitchers still have to execute. The hit her still have to hit the ball.

And, you know, it's like football this year. When Deshawn Watson's at the line of scrimmage and they're calling audibles because he can see what the defense is going to do, there's going to be no fans in the stands and you're going to be able to hear everything. And it's still going to come down to who can execute the best of what they do. Everyone's going to know what Deshawn is changing because you're going to be able to hear it across the line. There's been no fans cheering ever. So I do agree that there is some sentiment that, you know, yes, the aster's might have known what's coming, but at the end of the day, you start to put bat the ball.

just like Barry Bonds. Like Barry Bonds, yes, he cheated. He used steroids. His home run record is tarnished, just like the Astros World Series Championship is tarnished. But in a way, you still earned it. He earned it also because, guess what, the pitchers he were going up against we're doing.

They were cheating and juicing too. So if everybody's juicing and you're the only one that hit 73 home runs, still pretty damn impressive. And everyone's using Pintar, and everyone's probably using some kind of illegal advantage to get more spin rate. The pitchers are cheating too.

The fact that people are trying to pretend like hitters are also the only people in baseball that cheat is also a joke and factually wrong. Like we know for a fact that pitchers use way too much pintar and the only reason why the Astros or other teams don't call out their pitcher, their opposing pitchers for pintar is because someone on their roster uses too much pintar. Yeah, it's kind of a double-ins agreement. Like we know that they're doing it. Then, well, I guess we're doing it too. Exactly. It's not a big deal. Yeah, it's just funny to me.

The funny thing to me is the lack of consistency and the hypocrisy from all of it. Like I said, you get all these people all up in arms and making it. There are people still, still when Chandler Rome or Brian McTaggart tweets something, there will still be people trickling into their mentions. I think people...

Oh, these cheaters. How could you... What is going on in your life? What is going on in your day to day? You're like, you just wake up and you're like, you know what I'm going to do today? I'm going to get into... Like, I live in, I don't know,

Oakland, California, And you know what I'm going to do today? I'm going to get into this guy, this beat writer for the Houston Chronicle, and he's name is Chandler Rome. I'm going to get into his mentions and talk about how the Astros are cheaters. That's really going to, I'm really going to accomplish something today. This is my gut reaction. Okay, Ross.

Those people are non-essential employees. They lost their jobs. And now they're such losers that they're just living off government unemployment rather than going back to work. that's what I think of when I see someone tweeting at Chandler. That's the person I imagine on the other side of the screen. Is that instead of going back to work, they take the extra money from the government. And they're like, I'm just going to stay unemployed.

Ooh, Jeff Bagwell in the booth tonight on the Astros Mariners telecast. So there we go. It's always good to have him in there. It's been kind of weird. I've seen a bunch of teams doing it with... They've been doing Jeff Bagwell Saturdays last year. But I don't know if he's been on this year so far. I think this is the first time they're expanding their booth.

Okay. That's good. I like it. I'm down. I'll be watching. Well, I'll always supposed to be watching the Rockets. Oh, yeah, quick programming note, by the way. Coming up here on Sports Talk 7-90, it'll be on KTRH, I believe, is the Astros at 7 o'clock. No? Is it here?

I think so. What is the Rockets on? Oh, geez. I know I'm doing Rockets pregame at 7 o'clock. Do I have to shuffle down the hallway? I think you do. Oh, dang it. Oh, hey, look, this is the programming note. If at any point you're looking for Rockets or Astros, it's going to be on 790 or 740.

That's pretty much your best bet. So we carry both here on Sports Talk 790, but when they're a lot. There are time conflicts. We have to move one to the other. So that's what we're doing tonight. You have both the Astros and the Rockets in action in their last game. All right, time for a quick break here on the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas. We got Andre Scrub coming up at 230 to talk about the latest with the Astros.

I'm looking forward to hearing from him. 713-2125790 is your phone number if you'd like to get in. We'll be back in a second after this short break. Back to Matt Thomas. Drives this date to left center field. This is Sports Talk. 790, home of Astros baseball. Coming up in a few minutes, we'll have Astros reliever on Dre Scrub.

It'll be good to have him on. We'll have him here on the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas. So it will be the Rockets on KBME, what I'm reading. Is that right? Rockets on KBME, Astros on KTRH, both of them is 7 o'clock. So the Rockets in action tonight against the Philadelphia 76ers. But the rockets are locked into the 4-5 spot. We had Mike Danton on earlier in the week.

He said that he's going to have Eric Gordon play a little bit. He got 20 minutes on the second half of the back-to-back on Wednesday. He went one of nine from three. But other than that, everything was really good. He was getting to the basket. He was aggressive. He looked a little leaner. We had Mike D'Antone on.

I asked him if he looked leaner, and he said, I think it's his uniforms. So Mike Dantone doesn't necessarily think that Eric Gordon has lost some weight. But it was good to see him be aggressive. And the Rockets are going to need him if they're going to be successful. So I saw the series price earlier today, Joe, with the Rockets and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Who do you think is favored in the matchup and buy how much? The Rockets are favored. And I'm going to guess they're like a minus 220.

Ooh, you're pretty close. Minus 175 for the Rockets. So that means they're about 1.75 to 1. So almost 2 to 1 is favorite to win. So about 60% for the Rockets is. what Vegas is feeling right now. And obviously the huge question mark there is you have Russell Westbrook out. He got an MRI a couple of days ago with his quadriceps strain.

He's going to miss tonight. He's going to miss a couple of practices. Mike Danton told us. Jonathan Fagan says he's going to miss a couple of games. So that's the big question mark, right, that hangs in the balance. Daniel House Jr. is supposed to play tonight or he's at least healthy and activated. So he's supposed to be okay. That was a worry for me.

I know that he's not necessarily a household name. But for what the Rockets want to do, Daniel House Jr. is very important. But what do you make? If I told you Russell Westbrook is missing the first three games of the series against the Thunder, what would you say as the result? I think they can still go two and one in the first three. I mean, I think. As in win two games?

Yeah, win two games, lose one. And that's because they have the best player on, the court. I mean, James Harden is, is by far the best guy on either team, even when Westbrook's playing. He is that much better than anything else that the thunder can throw at you. So I think it's still totally possible that the, the Rockets are up to one if Westbrook misses the first game. I think it's possible they're up three-oh, and Westbrook doesn't have to play in the first round. I feel that way as well. I just feel like, I don't know if I'm just being a blind

home or something like that and not giving respect to the, uh, to the Oklahoma City Thunder. I mean, they're a good team, and they got Andre Robertson back, and they have Stephen Adams, they have Chris Paul, Shea Gilgis Alexander's playing well. They got a really solid squad. Dennis Schroeder is a good ball player. Schroeder, Schroeder, Schroeder, Schroeder, Schroeder.

He's really good, too. I just, I feel like the Rockets are a step above. I agree. I think the Rockets are the better team, and I don't see, I think the Thunder can absolutely win. It would not shock me if they win, if they knock the rockets out of the playoffs. it's just it's not a shock no i've said this i've been saying this the entire time if the rockets

are out in the first round or if they make the NBA finals none neither would really shock completely agree and that's where and that's where i think the first three games it could be two-one rockets it could be one two or two-one thunder like it's it's really i think up in the air about what's going to happen especially without russell we just you don't know and and honestly russ isn't the problem whether he plays or not russell westwick is not the problem is eric gordon The problem is PJ Tucker The problem is Robert Covington Make your threes

Please they can't win If those guys don't play better It doesn't come down I think they can win Without Russell Westbrook I think they can beat the Lakers Without Russell Westwood I just don't really

If everyone's playing well But the problem is Is that Eric Gordon's been Not great all year And PJ's not hitting it right now He got banged up a little bit Roco's not really hitting his threes But if those guys start making

All of these wide open threes We've been seeing them missing in the corner since the bubble started. The Rockets can pretty much beat anybody. I really do believe that. Or they could get swapped in the first round of the Thunder. I literally think that's, I think it's that wide of a range. And I think what, but this is the thing, though, too. Throughout the years, when you talk about a team that can do this or do that,

usually they fall towards the lower end of those expectations. That's what kind of worries me with this Rockets team. But James Hardin has been playing fantastic. And this bubble, on both ends of the court, the Rockets, before the last game against the Pacers, they were fourth in defensive rating in the entire bubbled environment, the entire NBA.

I haven't looked up the update since then, but I'm sure that they didn't slip too much. So you're talking about a team who has turned it up defensively. They're getting more locked in. James Harden himself said that because he's in the bubble, it's a little bit easier for him. So if they can play the way that they're capable of playing and get everything going and make their,

most importantly, make their three, You can't have what happened Wednesday. James Hardin went 7 of 14 from 3. Everybody else went 9 of 43. That's very bad. They missed 34 of their 43-3-pointers that were people not named James Hardin. You can't have that happen. And Chief Among them, like you said, P.J. Tucker, the guy gets, every look that he gets,

is wide open from the corner. Let's go, buddy. That's the easiest shot in basketball. And I love P.J. Tucker. Longhorn, great. But he just, sometimes it comes out of his hands. flat out there in the corner and that's when you know it has no chance of going in. So he needs to get it together. He did have a finger injury that he suffered in the Wednesday's game. He didn't play the fourth quarter. He's also been banged up in the lower leg as well.

So hopefully he doesn't play tonight and then the Rockets don't play until Tuesday. So nearly a week off for PJ Tucker I think would do well for the Rockets. And that's really good for Westbrook too. Like that's a huge advantage that you're going to get all this time off. He missed the last game he's obviously not playing tonight and now he's not like even worse case if he doesn't play in the three games or best case i guess if he doesn't play in the first three games that means he wouldn't need to play basketball again for like two weeks total yeah that sounds good to me like that's plenty of time to recover and look and and i heard what dantonia said yesterday he said getting westbrook close to 100% which makes me think the rockets and westbrook and the and the medical

staff, they're fully aware that they're not going to be able to get Russell Westbrook back to 100% health this year. And that's fine. That's okay. Can you get him back to 90? Can you back to 95? On the worst case, 75%. Like, can you get there and can you win with that? Yeah, here's the the audio I was referencing. Here's James Harden. Listen to him laugh when he's asked about locking into the bubble if it's easier for him. So is there like a different level of locking in? You know, here there's no distractions you're in Orlando it's really just basketball how does that maybe change how focus you can

do for me I think it's helpful but I think our team I think everybody's like you know there's no distractions there's no fans there's no family for me I think it's pretty helpful I mean yeah yeah I gotta be honest there's not a whole lot of distractions for me

out here and then you know what that was Taylor Rooks and she like followed up asking him about that about what he had to say we're really taking advantage of it Just a quick call up when I asked him when I laughed, like saying that for you. I was, why laugh there? She says, why laughing? I don't want to talk about that.

We're not going to talk about that. Wait, is he like confessing? Like, I'm not going to strip clubs anymore. Exactly. That's pretty much what he did. That was like a couple of Sundays ago. I'm like, oh, James Hardin knows he's going to lock in.

So we talked about this earlier with Brian Smith on the show, Joe. If they're out in the first round, it does Tillman Clean House. Obviously, 99% chance at Mike Dantone's not back. What about do you think Darrell Mori is no longer the Astros general manager as well? I don't think he should, but I think he will because he is the new owner and we see this across sports. Across sports, new ownership wants to put, you know, their kind of their feel on it. They want to show like this is my team now, whether that's GMs or, and it's really, we saw it with the Carolina Panthers this year. The new ownership comes in.

They immediately fire Ron Rivera. They have a new quarterback. Like, they've replaced Cam Newton. That is a common practice among sports of changing things pretty drastically when they're not the results you have right away when you're the owner. Daryl Mory would have another job within seconds of getting fired by, but. Now, here's the thing. There are no jobs to take. Yeah.

So there are none? I don't think any GMs have been fired. Ooh, that will happen. The Knicks fired their GM. He got replaced. Ooh, they need to fire whoever they replaced him with and get Terrell Murray. That's what they need to do. of the head coaching opportunities,

there are the Chicago Bulls and the Brooklyn Nuts, and that's it so far. And wasn't there, somebody else was going to talk about it? There was the Knicks, but Tom Thibodeau's already been hired. Maybe Pelicans are thinking

about firing gentry, I think? Yeah, or he could retire. All right. So we got to take a quick break here because we've got Andre Scrub of the Houston Astros coming up here. Next on the Matt Thomas show. Final half hour of the Matt Thomas show here on Sports Talk 790.

Ross, we're out with you. Matt Thomas remains out. He's road tripping, taking his son up to Texas Tech. But in the meantime, I am pleased to be joined by the man who came over to the Houston Astros and the Tyler White Trade. Andre Scrabb is yet to give up a run this evening, this season, pitching very well for the Stroza. Andre, this is Ross. Appreciate you making the time. How are you?

I'm good at yourself. I'm pretty good, man. So let's go ahead and get it started. Let's start from mentioning the trade there. What was it like when you heard that you were going to get traded and become into the Astros organization? What were your first thoughts? What was going through your mind when you got that phone call? Oh, I heard I was getting traded.

The assistant GM Brandon GOMB, so I was getting trades to Astros. And I thought to myself, but I went from one of the best teams in baseball to the best team in baseball. So obviously I'm doing something okay to get that kind of attention. attention. Yeah, do you feel like, what is that kind of two-edged sword there? You say, well, one team is giving me up, but another team seems to have seen promise in me. Did you have any of those types of feelings as well? Absolutely. I feel like every player that gets traded kind of thinks, you know, especially when you're in a minor league or like, maybe they didn't value me as much, but obviously once you get to the Astros and how well they treat you, you know, they really wanted you.

Yeah, and what was that? What have you heard about the, so we talked to a lot of pitchers on the show, throughout the years, of course. And a lot of guys talk about being wowed by the analytics and the different approaches. First of all, what had you heard about what they do here differently for the Astros and what have you experienced as far as a pitching approaches and all those types of things and working with Brent Strom as well? So when you're not in the Astros, you think they're doing something over there that's legendary because you see all the spin range, you see all the numbers of the guys that put up in the minor

league. you know, like, oh, my goodness. And it's like, you get over here, and it's really, they just trust their analytics. They trust their guys. They trust what they're seeing. And they take what you do, and they don't, they don't like, you know, pray on the negative, the negative things you're doing. They really build you up, you know, in the positive way and everything you're doing well. They just continue to build it and make it even better.

So that's the main difference for me. Andre Scrabb here on the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. and as I mentioned Brent Strom, just what did you, the same thing, same question, basically. What did you heard about him before

and what's it like working with him now with you in the organization? You know, growing up, you see, you know, a bunch of coaches. You know,

obviously Strom's a big name in the game. The thing that, you know, I can say about Stromy is, I mean, he came up and spoke to me my first day. He worked with me my first day.

I don't even know if I ever met the big league pitching coach, you know, over there in L.A. So, I mean, this is before I got called up. So, I mean, just having that experience and that, you know, enthusiasm he had as me as a player and a person was just awesome.

You know, how personal of a guy he is. Yeah. So what was it like getting that call? Joe Biazini went down with the injury. You got called up. But also, it's one of those weird situations, right? We're in the midst of a pandemic. There's all these different protocols and all this type of stuff going on.

Quite a year to make your first appearance in the major league level. Yeah, it's definitely a little bit. different. You know, I catch myself looking at the stands, looking for my family, my wife, sometimes, you know, just out of habit. But obviously, those cutouts aren't in the seat yet. But, you know, it's definitely a little weird, but it's the same game. It really is the same game. And it makes it easier when you're playing against some of the guys you grew up watching. So, you know, it's definitely still the same feeling, the same blessing you could imagine. What do you mean that makes it easier for the guys you grew up watching?

You're just more comfortable or what? No, no. Like I'm saying like it makes it that more like surreal. Oh, okay. So you're not there. The fans aren't there. And it's like, oh, well, you know, I just saw I have a full host in the box. You know, I just, you know, I'm facing guys.

I grew up when I was a kid watching. So, I mean, it's honestly an amazing experience. Yeah. How do you deal with those types of feel? I mean, did you just kind of put it in the back of your mind? Do you embrace that type of feeling or mentally what is your approach when you do see like, oh, my goodness. I'm pitching against Albert Pooleholes.

You just try to keep calm, or what do you do? Luckily, I'm not going to say luckily. I think I could have gotten out, but the game plan was intentionally walking. But, you know, when you see guys like that, you kind of get up a tick or more on your, you know, velocity or stuff. And what you get credit to those guys. That's what every guy does pretty much. You know, you tick it up just a little bit for them and they still, you know, do what they do in their career. so it's pretty impressive.

Andre Scrub, right-handed reliever for the Astros, pitching very well this season with us on the Matt Thomas show. And Andre, speaking of just this is the feeling and the whirlwind and all that type of stuff, what is your feeling as far as the lack of fans? Does it make you calm? We had Blake Taylor on last week, and he said, you know what? I could just tell myself, this is like the Florida League that I've pitched in. Would you rather have the fans and the energy?

Is that something that juices you up, or does it make you a little bit easier to be calm for you without the fans in the stands? Honestly, it's not like a calm or not calm. I think it's a hit or miss for me, you know, due to my last name, I don't have people yelling at me, you know, yelling funny things about scrub, but, you know, it doesn't, you know,

obviously we miss the fans, you know, the main reason why we do is for the fans. But, you know, I obviously prefer to have them there, but I don't think it makes much of a different performance-wise. Who do you think has heard more jokes about their last name? or Seth Beer, who was in the Astros minor league system and got traded to Arizona? Funny jokes? Probably Seth Beer, you know, some of those more aggressive jokes. I probably got them.

Yeah, you can't go out there and have a bad outing, Andre, because you already know what's coming if you give up a couple of runs. You know what you're going to hear. Oh, yeah, you know, I go into the game with it in those scrubs, and I know if I don't hear it walking off, I had a pretty good day. That's funny, but I guess it's got to be something you've taken stride at this point. You've probably heard them all, right? Absolutely, absolutely.

I mean, you know, I mean, I've had, you know, I get called, I don't know most people. Most people don't call me Andre, so I'm so used to just hearing scrub. But, you know, you know, the jokes, the scrubbing bubbles, you know. All right. I mean, it's, it goes, it's a long list. All right, that's funny. Speaking of just being into the Astros organization, another thing that they have is, well, Justin Verlender's out now, but you're talking about the veteran guys like the Zach Grinkies and Strom,

and who are some of the guys? that you've gravitated to, some of the veteran guys in the bullpen or just in the starting lineup, anybody that you've kind of picked their brain about pitching and stuff like that? I mean, they're all pretty much an open book, which is honestly the coolest thing I could say about, you know, teammates, especially veterans, you know, Presley, Josh James. I mean, Roberto Osso, I mean, you're talking huge names, size needs, you know, we're talking guys that are doing it, and they're all just so helpful and so nice. And, you know, you hear horror stories on other teams where guys are just in their own zone

and they really don't want to be bothered. But this entire team is such an open book and there's so much knowledge that they give out. It's honestly, you know, a blessing. Yeah, and you know, Andre, you mentioned that, and I think there's a lot of the... We've talked to hitters who say the same thing. These guys, the Jose Altuves, the Alex Bregman's,

even Michael Brantley, when he first came in, he'd hit the ground running. And it just seems like, is in that... Is that where a winning culture can come from? Is where everybody is open book and everyone is trying to help each other? Is that what you feel like when you got here? Absolutely. I didn't know a team could be like that. I had my first day in spring training.

I mean, Justin Verland and I came with to introduce himself. I have a legitimate first ballot Hall of Famer come up to me and introduce himself. He didn't have to do that. You know, these guys just make you feel at home. You feel like a family. And a lot of people say that, but it really truly is a thing here. So, I mean, I can definitely see that playing into a winning culture for sure. Do you have any good grinky stories yet? I don't have any. I don't have any. No, I try to let him do his thing. Obviously, he's a mastermind on the mound, regardless if people know what's coming or not for him. I don't know if you saw the science thing. Yeah, yeah, of course. You're going to start doing that, Andre? No, no, I don't know if I'd have as much success. I can't do the things he does on the mound. Yeah, all right, well, Andre, appreciate you, man, wish you much success, and you're doing a great job holding down the bullpen. With all the things going down and the injuries, man, and I hope you keep it up.

All right. Thank you so much. All right. Appreciate the time. Andre Scrub there of the Houston Astros. And, you know, Joe, that's something that we've heard from years. I mean, we talked to anybody that we've had in spring training over the last couple of years, guys who come here, like when Michael Brantley comes here, and they just hear about the culture of the Astros and the way that they play.

And it starts with – it started with the top, and it's on both the hitting side. And when Dallas Keikle was here, They're so welcoming with open arms. And I think it's no mistake that you're seeing a lot of these rookies have some success early on because of guys. Like Andre Scrub just said, Justin Verlander came up and introduced himself to me, to talk to me. I've heard a story like that before in the NFL where Pat McAfee has told a story about how Peyton Manning walked up to him, his first day at the Colts facility. And it's just when you have a leader like Verlander or a Peyton Manning in your clubhouse or locker room, it changes everything.

And I think that's one of the things that hurts the Asher's so much right now about not having JV there and the COVID protocols that are in place. Dusty and James Click have talked about this. He can't even be at the ballpark. So it's not even like you're losing Verlander on the mound. You've lost him in the clubhouse.

And he's such an essential figure to this team. It's awesome to hear that. I just, I wish he could be with the team. Like I think it's such a disappointment that, you know, Andre can't be out there and then he comes back in and JV's talking to him. be like, hey, I'm seeing this and this, and it's a different perspective than Stromy. You kind of lose that a little bit this year.

But it's awesome that the Astros have built this culture where they bring guys in, and it works so well. Because like Andre was saying, like, it's not like that on every team. Yeah. And, you know, people called the Jeff Luno, this, like, calculated killer. I don't think it's like, and he's only looking inside of his book or anything like that. I don't think it's an accident that there are all these people around who live and breathe and love baseball and want to talk baseball and want to improve themselves and want to get other their teammates better embrace all that type of stuff.

It's just not an accident that's been happening. And it's not an accident that they started winning when that type of culture was cultivated here. Yeah, and that's why I hope something that can stick through. And that's where, you know, I do like the Dusty Baker higher. When you're going through this big change, you bring in someone that can help with the clubhouse and you still have Joe Spada here.

And you hope that this culture that was built before It can sustain through the scandal and can sustain going forward as guys leave and new guys come in, that Bregman can carry that torch that guys like Justin Verlander have now set of, you know, when a top prospect gets a choir that's a hitter, hopefully it's Alex Bregman that is eventually going up to him and shaking his hand and talking to him or I guess maybe fist bumps. Yeah, well, elbow bumps? Well, hopefully by the time. Air fives. Air fives.

Okay. Are you an elbow bump guy? I've been doing it out. It makes me uncomfortable. I feel like I'm going to blow up my UCL or something. You're going to have Tommy Jones. I'm going to have TJ from an elbow bump. Is that why?

Is that what Verlinter? Oh, no, stop. Not speculating here on the Matt Thomas show. That's enough from you, Joe. That's Joe George. I'm Ros Vio Reall. Special thanks to Andre Scrub for joining us. Interesting stuff he said about how eye-opening it was in the culture.

So you guys want to talk about anything he said. You want to talk some Astros. We got one segment to go. 713-1-2-5-790. 7-1-3-1-2-5-7-90. Also, the, Seahawks had to cut a rookie yesterday. Why?

It's very interesting. We'll get to that next here on the Matt Thomas show. The Matt Thomas Show. Back to it. On Sports Talk 790. Escalated. Home of the Stroes. The final segment of the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas.

But never you fret. Great programming continues here on Sports Talk 790. You've got the 18 coming up. Adam Clanton, Adam Wexler with you as starting at 3 o'clock. First hour is going to be Jeff Blum. Is that correct, boys? Yes, sir. That's always a good time.

I'm sure he's going to be happy that Yordon Alvarez is back in, well, supposedly back in the lineup. We'll see when the lineup card comes out. But he's at least with the team. He's at least been activated off of the IL. So good news to get Yordon Alvarez back and lengthen up that lineup at some point for the Houston Astros. So coming up tonight, 7 o'clock on KBME, we have Astros. On Deck Show with...

Adam Wexler. Adam Wex are with the on deck in the 10th inning. Look at us putting Wex to work. I like that. And it'll be me on KTRH from starting at 7 o'clock with the Rockets launch pad. So you're looking for thrilling Rockets versus Philadelphia 76ers basketball or Astros versus Mariners. You'll be Astros on 790. Rockets on 740.

And like I said, we're going to have a lot of conflicts coming up. Like next week, you have the Astros have day games. The Rockets are having day games. So you just look on 740 or look on 740. 790 and you'll find whichever game you're looking for. All right, 713, 2,1,25790, the phone number if you'd like to get in. So, guys, you have all these protocols happening in the NFL and they're supposed to keep everything in line and supposed to be following all these rules. Well, there was a certain Seattle Seahawk.

His name is Kima Siverand, Cyverand. And he was caught on video and eventually cut after he was trying to sneak a female visitor in. to the team hotel. The unauthorized guest was reportedly wearing Seahawks gear and trying to disguise herself as a player. Syvern was signed by Seattle back in May as an undrafted free agent. He played at A&M before transferring to Oklahoma State. And he's from Houston. And he's been subsequent, what school did you go to, Cy Ridge?

Sy Ridge. I can't keep track of all the Sys. There's Cy Cove and Cy Creek and Cy Fair and Cy whatever. I clicked on it and I was like, kind of like, I was like, I want to be from Houston. And then boom. Well, come on, dude. Look, I mean, this is just an intelligence test at this point. I'm sorry, I don't know.

Kima Severin and apologies to your family. But your boy, Kima is dumb. How, what is he trying to do? See, what is? I'm just trying to figure this out. This sounds like something that would happen in a children's movie. You try to sneak something. How tall is this woman that he's trying?

She's five foot one. I saw that. I don't know if that's sure enough. Well, I guess you could pass for Russell Wilson. Did he have a curly wig on? He's like 5-11. All right, yeah, but he's still short. Ross, I'm 5-6.

Easy. Lay off, bro. I'm just saying Russell Wilson is short for a quarterback in the NFL. That's a fact. I'm going to cancel culture, Ross v. R. Oh, no. For your discrimination towards short-shaming. For short-shaming Russell Wilson.

I'm not short-shaming Russell Wilson. I'm just saying, look at the numbers. As far as he averages, he's short for an average NFL quarterback. And he's the second best quarterback in the NFL. Do I agree with that? Who do you have in front of him? Oh, Pat Mahomes, obviously, his numerous. Lamar Jackson?

NFL QB average height. Do you have Lamar Jackson in front of him? 6'4. 6'4th 3 average height for a quarterback. Whatever. He's still number 2. He's still 4. She just asks for a running back.

Who's the shirt is running back on their roster? Is Darren Sproles on the Seahawks? That's what I'm wondering. Is she like a teapot? Is she short and stout? How did we think that she? was going to pass. Well, Mike Rable said that he hoped she wasn't like an offensive line.

I mean, is there like some short guy who was on the, what was a Tyrone holiday? Derek Cohen of the Bears is 5'6. I think he's the shortest player in the NFL right now. So even he's got five. So five foot one. Was she in shoulder pads? Did she have lifts?

Did she have stilts? I need to figure out, I want the surveillance video. Like TMZ, where you at, man? Can we? They have to get on top of this, right? Because there's just no way. What are we doing here? Kima Sivirand.

Losing your job? I just don't understand how he thought this is going to be, this is going to get back. And did he just put, what does Seahawks gear mean? Like, was she in a jersey? Was she in a jersey and shoulder pads? What does that mean? Wear a helmet.

A helmet on her? I feel like she was. With one of those La Danian Tomlin. visors so that they couldn't see her eyes. But how did she get it? Did he like... And did she talk with... She goes, hey, what's up?

What's up? I'm Chris Carson. Like, who did she say she was on the CIOS? Definitely the kicker, right? I guess. It's still training camp, so there's backup kickers? Yeah, that's true. Did she have to go through like COVID protocols again?

Like, did she get a nose swab before she got into that? That's what I'm wondering. How could she, how do we think she could just get in there? I don't understand. I'm trying to figure this out. I'm trying to figure out how. Kima thought that this was going to get, this was going to go through and this was, this was going to work. This brilliant plan.

I wish he would like release a statement. Now, this is like two kids going on top of each other trying to get a rated R movie with a trench coat on. This is basically how comical this story is. It's a freaking cartoon. It's just, it's, I mean, to think, like, you're going to have to, like, tell people, like, I had a shot to make the NFL as an undrafted free agent. Yes. Why didn't you?

I needed to get some Maybe she needed to bring him some Important medication Stop that Maybe she was Maybe she baked him a cake And he was hungry No, what

Oh geez Stop That word is banned from this show Joe All right I don't know It is now That's not what he was looking for Yes it was

Oh geez This is just this story. I mean, my goodness. He was like, I've been listening to Meg the Stallion. You think Matt Thomas listened to that song? Yeah, we did bring it up on here, right? I think they listened to all the day it came out. Yeah, the day it came out, somebody had tweeted us saying,

have Matt listen to this or something like that. And Matt was like, what is it stand for? I was like, man, I can't tell you. He was like, what's the first one? I'm not going to say that one either. Like, it's just, hopefully he's listening to it with his son on his trip to Lubbock. I really hope. I hope he is. Man. But this story to me, it's like the bigger story.

You see, these players are going to try to skirt these rules. Yeah. In the NFL, it's going to have certainly in college football, that's why I'm so, I don't want to say worried, right? Because even if the players are sick and they catch coronavirus, likely they're going to be okay. But I just think you're telling me that you're going to get 77 schools or whatever it is, it's going to be playing Division I college football today. You're going to get 32 NFL teams. and they're not going to be issues,

and there's not going to be issues for multiple weeks. Now, they do, the NFL does have that benefit, right? If somebody test positive on a Tuesday, you've got a few more days of testing and you don't play until Sunday. So that's definitely going to help them out. But I'm just curious to see how this is all going to play out in the long term. The asteriskers have said it. Deshaun Watson is speaking to the media right now.

I know some of that for you coming up on the A team, but they're talking about it's really about who can be, the most protective of their players, the most committed to not getting exposed. Whoever has the least amount of COVID cases is going to win. Cyberand is not very committed to not breaking the rules.

Also, Texans will officially have no fans for the home opening. All right, that's it for the Matt Thomas show with No Matt Thomas. Matt will be back on Monday. Special thanks to Joseph George. Appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm glad I got a work band. Thanks to Brendan Riley. And thanks to you for listening, calling, tweeting, being

involved in the show in anyway. My name is Ross Villarreal. I'll talk to you guys at six on the nightcap, also 7 o'clock on KTRH for Rockets coverage. Astros will be right here at 7. Right now, you've got the A team, Jeff Blum, Adam Wexler, Adam Klan for the first hour here on Sports Talk 790.