Speaker 1: This is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross.
Speaker 2: Ten o'clock at h Town. Good morning, and welcome today
number two The Matt Thomas Show with Ross Spring Training
Style from West Palm Beach, Florida. Where we are going
to bring you. We brought you a lot of pictures yesterday.
We're going to the outfield a lot today. Let's go.
We're also gonna go on the infield for a little
bit as well as Christian Walker will be among our guests.
Joey lo Berffido will be among our guests. Zach Cole
be among our guests. Cam Smith, you and I talked
to you this morning. We'll have that interview for you
as well. So we got a very busy Tuesday edition
of The Matt Thomas Show. Ross here from Astro spring Training.
It's a star studded edition of the show, and we're
also gonna have guests. Matt could have said it better
MYSELFA man sports rv uh. We have somebody in our
media brethren who has lost his mind. His name is
Brian mctaggard. Are you gonna call him out the first segment? Okay,
excuse me, mayan a record? What is he wigging out about? Matt,
go ahead, he's wigging out because our Cougar's lost to
Iowa State yesterday. Uh, we had a seventeen to four
run by Iowa State late that didn't ask, so Cougar's
make him as do. Most teams go into scoring droughts.
That's exactly what happened last night. A key offensive rebound
in the last few seconds helped the Iowas State cause too,
there was a kicked ball that was called that was
a handball. Yes, it touched a hand while the player
was kicking. So confused the referees college referees we've talked
about on the show not good. Yeah, I mean the
three guys that were on the crew last night were
like the best of the best of the best. Oh really,
Oh yeah, Well everybody misses calls, Matt, nobody's perfect as
much as they try. And oh, by the way, a
three point deficit and a two and a half points
spread on the game if you had a gitting interest
in it, if you did. Yeah, So, needless to say,
first of all, East Coast time sucks. That bad boy
tipped off at nine o'clock. I fell in and out
of sleep because I got we got to be peel
the curtain back. Here we are summertime sucks. Eastern time
first of all sucks. Secondly, we're outside here, yes, uh
really just basically adjacent to the concourse of the Cacti Ballpark,
and we do have a tent over us, but it's
still warm. So if you, as anybody would do, you're outside,
if you're gardening, if you're walking, yes, if you're playing golf.
When the day ends, you get back to your room
and you fall asleep. I took a NAPISDS. We got
home to the hotel yesterday. Your son's apped. We went
out and had dinner last night, had a big heavy meal.
We were we're sleepy too there. So I did wake
up in time to watch the last five minutes and
Franklin didn't see much scoring. And uh look this the
Cougars have a murderer's role lineup games Iowa State last night,
Arizona this Saturday. By the way, tickets are now up
to over four hundred dollars per ticket for that good Yeah,
I mean it's a great venue to go to. I'm
sure the place will be completely packed, but if you're
looking to go get tickets, it's going to cost you
a pretty penny on that, and then the following Monday
they get on a play and go back to play
in Kansas against the Jayhawks. So a really interesting way
for them to close out their Big twelve campaign. That's awesome.
I mean a number three team on the road at
the number six hosting the number four team, and then
at the number eighteen. Yeah that's cool. Yeah, So yeah,
I'm disappointed. Of course I'm mad, but I have little
faith and officials, especially college basketball referees. Just be ready
for just be ready and healthy for the turn pitch,
your free throws, well, yeah, make a basket late in games,
grab an offensive rebound, the little intangibles, and do not
allow a kicked ball whatever the case would be, or
handball that should have been. Not call anything but just
regular course of play, help you determine a possession change.
It was ultimately beneficial to the Cyclones. It was a
fun game, Matt, until it wasn't. I'm sorry wishing that
the Cougar is the best tournament. Yeah, but mctager is
just beside himself today. He's Cougar's fan. Uh number I
want to say one, No, I don't want you to
get mad at me, no, no, no, because as far as
argue on Twitter, he's Cougar Fans number no, Cougar's fan
number one. Yeah. He yeah, he's way more emotional than
I am about it. He was talking, he was talking
to Joe's spot about it. Yeah. So so he's talking
to everybody the clubhouse guys. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The guy's watering the lawns out here the ballpark, he says.
He says, man, the kinks, some flumings or something else.
I said, Jack and you and I ell m and
he goes, I don't have enough money for that. Hey,
get the I heard from a trusted source. The program's
broke or poor. I'm sorry, poor, I believe was the word.
Did you see who sent Venmo money to Calvin Samson?
Oh I I yeah, say I can't make the coach
U c l A and he was a coach. I
couldn't remember one centim a dollar. That's good. Kelvin's doing okay, yeah,
cal on Friday show at one thirty. Yeah, so no,
we'll do non four stories a little earlier. Well, by
the way, for to be Friday for the stories because
we're in the state this week. So very much looking
forward to that that's right. Yeah, Well, Jonathan's back with
this as our producer, so we've got live guests, we've
got some woody rip our take coming up, a lot
of astrocentric stuff. But just worthy of a mentioned that
the cougar fell yesterday, and yeah, it's it's just hard
to And maybe if I was if I had not
fallen asleep and I was just watching the whole thing,
I would have been more passionated to it. But like,
I got up at the right time, and unfortunately it
was the wrong time. I was dozing off. The last
thing I remember hearing was nine oh run by Iowa State,
and then I put in my earbuds and uh and
put on some music to go to sleep. Am I storing,
by the way, I don't know, because you're not okay good? Yeah,
well I got my I got my seatpap machine, so
I don't normally store with that, and I'm not going
to find out because I put my earbuds in. You
have your like a normally I would say, a light snorer. Yeah,
so I was prepared. Only time I ever really lovely
is when I, you know, like most people, when people
have colds or stuff congested, it effects her breathing, so
that would be the case. So you're better than say
a Schmish Smorty or my brother start to call two
people out by name, Jeez, Schmish Morty. By the way,
I'm gonna send my legs and look at these bad boys.
Oh my god, you can see them. By the way,
if you want to look at our instagram with the
interview with uh well, the media scrum as it were
with Joe Spot, you showed my legs. No, I wasn't
try I was zooming in on them. But I believe
that if you catch the Instagram Sports Talk seven ninety,
I believe you can. You can see them there. It's
not the featured item. It's not like Kevin Durant's what
is less white than al bino? Your translution? You mean
more white or less? You want to be bone? I
need to get darker. I I mean I am white
like the song wider shade of gray? Is that what
they call it? Yeah, darker shade of gray. I'm just
the I'm so disenchanted with my legs. You're going for
an eggshell. I don't know what it is, but it's
so sad. I'm just gonna leave my legs out here
like this and see how they go four straight out.
I'm a lifting all No, you're gonna burn. That's fine,
I can live, no, I know, because then I'm gonna
have to hear you complain about your legs burning all day,
all right, among other things. All right, So what else
going on? We got? Oh? As far as news the day,
nothing really here at the astros esac Pretis is still
an Astra of Ross and if you knew that or not,
but he's still I'm in the clubhouse walking around. Yeah uh,
it's it's awkward. I'm sorry. I know that astro fans
don't want to hear that, but these are this, this
is the life they lived. Yeah uh, And I think
there's the The big part of this to me is
a human element. Because I was on with the A
team with Adam Wexler and Adam Klanton yesterday. I'll be
joining them again today at four o'clock. Okay, And Adam
Wexler asked like, hey, like it. It seems like this
is workable as far as a position, especially if you
put jord On Alvarez and left and then you use
the DH elsewhere like this, This is workable. You have
six you have four infil positions, a left field in
a DH that's six positions for six guys. But the
problem is when you get the human element wrench into this,
when you get the the you uh ord on Alvarez,
it's Joe a spot his preference that he not be
in the field as much as possible. Right, That's where
you have a log jam. So is this a log
jam self created by the Houston Astros. Perhaps you could
argue that, but you also have the the guys who
want to be out there. We're gonna talk to Christian Walker.
I can guarantee you he's gonna say he wants to
be out there every single day at first base. He
told it to us last year. He's not gonna be
out there every single day, but he's gonna be out
there if it works out the plan and he hits.
I'm not talking about three twenty five with an ops
eleven hundred. I'm talking about just normal first base Christian
Walker numbers. If he hits and stays healthy, he plays
one hundred and fifty games. Yeah, it just does. They
want to be out there, and we'll have Cam Smith
on later on the show. He said the same thing.
He wants to be out there every day. You don't
make it through high school, college, all the minor leagues
to get to the major leagues because you don't care
about baseball, because you don't care to be out there
every single day. You have a huge competitive fire to
make it to the elite of the lead level of baseball.
These guys want to be out there. And so that's
the thing, is that for everybody that says, well, there's
one hundred, here's a letter at sixty two games, he
can route to it, it doesn't work that way. They
I want telling you. We're telling you this not because
we necessarily disagree with you. Yeah, but we actually have
the ability to talk to the people in the clubhouse.
So I'm telling you, friends, it's not because you don't
have some elementary knowledge of it. But being a fan
and being us in media are different than what is
in that clubhouse. And that clubhouse is twenty six amazing
egos that have done something to get to this level
of professional baseball. They want to play. They don't want
to share time. Yeah. As much as I'm an analytics
guy and I love numbers and all that stuff, I
understand also we're dealing with human beings, and these human
beings aren't on a spreadsheet. They have thoughts and feelings
and competitive fires. They want to be out They have egos,
and they all want to be better than the guy
next to them, and themselves and they and the other
teams and everyone. They're all competitive and they all want
to be out there. And again, somebody in the infield,
hopefully I'm wrong about this, but somebody the infield is
gonna get hurt this year. And if they move Paritis,
there will be five million phone calls saying this is
what you don't deal that. You don't deal with a
baseball club that way. You don't construct a roster to
put people in lay away in case something goes down.
You just don't do that. It'd be interesting. We're gonna
get in some fights with people about this, I guarantee
you I'd rather not. And then I'm gonna wind up
dropping my headphones and leaving the studio for a couple
of minutes and do that. If you're on post game,
you have to get the margat reader machine back out. Uh, well,
do just that, bad boy. Margreting machine was out only
because the astros are losing five days a week was
three break down one hundred lost seasons, right, and there
was a one to twelve of the mix too, right,
so I think one of them was maybe even yeah,
one thirteen, one eleven in there. God not good? All right,
astros chatter to get too. Yes, we're gonna come back
and do a Texans bit here real quick. Really. Todd McShay, ok,
former ESPN employee, is trying to throw out the trade
wins for CJ. Stroud. It appears ridiculous, But what do
I know? Now? I am the Texans insider, Yes, so
you should know. Well I'm I'm doing the astro stuff
right now. That just shows you the talent on the
level that I bring. I can handle multiple beats at
one time. Yes, uh, because we were talking all different
sports and Dana Brown was impressed with us, Yes he was.
And I'll be doing the rocket stuff coming up on
Thursday from Charlotte. So all right, seven two one two
five seven ninety if you want to join us. Seven
one three two one two five seven ninety. A lot
of astro stuff to come up here between now and
two o'clock. We'll hear from Cam Smith coming up in
a few minutes as well. But I do want to
at least hear what see. I have not heard the
TOMICCSHA audio. I know it's in our system, so oh great.
I'll be curious to hear what he says and whether
that's him just going on a podcast and saying something
out of his ass or he's got some deep meaning
to it. We'll do that next at ten thirteen on
Sports Talk seven ninety. All Right, welcome back here to
the Matt Thomas Show with Ross Ross with the Ross Viril,
Matt Thomas as well and Jonathan Allen back at the station.
We had a little bit of a technical difficulties are
about that some snafu sometimes when you hit the road.
Perhaps our connection was a little bit off, but it
should be good to go here. So what we're gonna
do is we are. We did have a conversation earlier today,
myself and Matt Thomas with Astro's right fielder perspective possible
center fielder Cam Smith to talk about with him, So
let's go ahead and get to that while we make
sure our connection is good and stable here at West Palm.
So Cam Smith from earlier today talking about his off
season and the whirlwind year he had last year. I
want it, okay, just a second, Jonathan, and he'll have
it for us. It was a good conversation with cam
Smith and we'll have later on in the show. Christian Walker,
Zach Cole, fan favorite Joey Loperfedo. I think our ratings
are going to explode through the roof unlike they have
ever before, as when we get Joey Liperfita later on
the show. So that should be good, some good stuff
and we'll throw to cam Smith in just a second
here whenever Jonathan is ready for that. So it is
kind of a lot. We were talking about all these
outfielders and the options that the Astros are going to
be able to have here, and it's something that hopefully
we'll I don't want to say fix itself, but if
you have an enough options, then hopefully something's going to
work out. So that's what it feels like, Zach Cole.
You have the September numbers and then we'll see from there.
Cam Smith does have the pedigree, and that's the good thing.
He is a first round pick. He did hit the
ground running with the Astros in that first month. Then
unfortunately things kind of caught up with him. Felt like
by the end of the year, he just was physically
not there and not prepared for the Riggers of one
hundred and sixty two game season. Not any fault of
his own. I like saying he was out there and
just I don't know, bowling and eating chili fries every
time he was out on the road. But it's something.
What did you say he was eating chili fries? Said
he wasn't eating chili friz Oh. I was like, man,
that's right. He just felt like the season war on
Cam Smith. And that's because he had never played more
than what like forty baseball games in a season. You
go straight from Florida State and then you're in one
hundred and sixty two game season. That happens all the time.
We see that in the NBA, matt To where you
have the college players who play thirty f five forty
games max, and then you play you're playing twice a week,
to where you're in the NBA in an eighty two
game season and you're playing up to four times a week.
It wears on you. It takes a little time to
get ready. And that's my big hope with camp Smith
is that he able to get some rest and recuperation,
get that body ready for the Riggers of one hundred
and sixty two game season, and then he can thrive
for the Astros. Yeah, I would just send the email
to the interview with Camps. Will be getting thats in
just a couple of recreds here. But boy, I thought
one of the most interesting quotes of the offseason was
that there was nothing guaranteed for him that came from Dana,
and I don't know think that was too I don't
think no I was gonna say, I don't think you
needed that. It was just that we're not gonna just
settle for what was, unfortunately for him, a down second
half of the year. I like that. Don't don't hand
him the spot. I mean, it's his for the taking,
but you don't have to hand it to him. If
you have other options, you can figure things out, and
it's not like you're going to be necessarily exactly where
you want to be, as we mentioned, I mean, with
with a Zach Cole, with a Joey Lo Braffito, with
possibly Cabin Bigio, with a Jake Myers. You have options,
but you don't have a bunch of dudes with who
were gold Glove Slash All Star plays. No, there's nobody
that's slugging enough or a big enough average. Uh and
to say that I deserve, I mean, really, the most
solidified spot is Jake Myers. The fan club agrees, and
we'll hear from him on the show tomorrow, so looking
forward to that. He was very excited. I told him
anytime he hits a home runner makes a big catch,
I get a bunch of tweets. Yeah, and you're selling
more t shirts. Yes, you should. You should actually be
like a shirt that says Myers Slash Villary al for tour. Actually,
we're actually planning a cruise, Matt really, Jake Myers fan
Club cruise. Yes, everybody gets a wig with a long
flow of curly hair, and everyone gets a helmet that
pops off as soon as you put it on. Oh,
we didn't ask about that. I should have. Actually we've
done that before with them. But he knows, he knows
everybody sees him picking up his helmet off the ground.
Maybe it's a good luck charm for him. Maybe it's
like a super Maybe it's like a superstition or something
like that. Having email issues here this is okay. Well,
the Wi fi out here has been immaculate. I want
to swear so bad, I really do. Well. Our connection's good. Okay,
Well we can talk for a minute, but it's yeah,
the message email is still being sent. We're having issues
here out here. Yeah, you can scream during the break, Jonathan,
how are things back over there?
Speaker 3: You know I'm on that side right, No, No, the
things all right?
Speaker 2: It shows being said. So that's good. We're we at
least got it sent to a thousand miles away. Wonderful.
All right, what else we got going on? Okay, so
we mentioned the outfield Christian Walker coming up and again
down eleven to twelve pounds. Is that like get rid
of fating foods or is that? I don't know, have
to ask him. Hopefully he didn't get like a tapeworm
or something. I mean, whatever it takes. Sometimes you gotta
lose that weight. No, I don't think that's good weight.
Do you want to lose muscle mass? I got sick
a couple of weeks ago. I had a little bit
of h as the kids would say, a virus. Okay,
and I think I lost five saying that five pounds
and eight hours that's interesting. That's not great, not the
way you want to do it. And I guess that's
mostly water weight. Man. I hope you got your electrolytes out.
I did get it. Okay, now speak of electro lights.
He's going to electrify this guy. What we talking about?
A radio professional? Here? Here, here is our visit this
morning with camp Smith. Okay, Cam, a blur of last year,
vivid details all the way through. How do you reflect
on twenty twenty five?
Speaker 4: Yeah, drink come true? A really good time. Honestly, I've
got a great group of guys with me. It made
my first year a lot easier having guys that can
rely on everybody in this in this clubhouse, from catchers, pitchers,
position players, coaches, everybody.
Speaker 2: I would say probably the best thing that happened for
you not only was the great march making the opening
day roster, but your transition to right field was as
difficult as you thought it would be or do it?
Was it a case of you know what you can
brocken yourself. You put the hard worker in it and
it paid off. Yeah, I would say it mix the
both for sure. Obviously I was working every day with
with Clarkey and h J.
Speaker 4: B our Our outfield coach every day on just the
small things that what it takes to be a right fielder.
But also it wasn't easy. It wasn't easy. I had
a little adjustment period. I said, when I first got
out there, the hitter was blurry to me. I couldn't
My eyes weren't adjusted to seeing that far.
Speaker 2: You know, there are contacts you can no, I don't
need contact.
Speaker 4: It was like, I'm so used to being at third
base whereas right yeah, yeah, so so being all the
way out there in right field, I was like, Wow,
I had to get my eyes.
Speaker 2: Used to it. Was there a particular park or a
situation that you made going, oh, I'm gonna have a
toime more difficult times see a ball.
Speaker 4: Yes, Uh, Sacramento exactly was terrible, only because there's only
one deck, so so at other parks there's three to
four so the ball, the ball is a nice there's
a nice contrast behind the ball when it goes in
the air. But at Sacramento is just blue.
Speaker 2: Sky, and that's miserable for you. For a guy like yourself,
you're just kind of learning and do. Yeah, it was
definitely an adjustment. It was definitely an adjustment.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't say miserable, but you definitely have to try
to focus on it more than you usually have to
when there's four three deck three to four decks.
Speaker 2: But you're on the verge of getting at Google Loove eventually, right, Yeah? Absolutely,
is that the goal? Absolutely?
Speaker 4: Absolutely, There's no reason why I can't do it.
Speaker 2: Tell me about your plate work. I know the second
half of the year is not what you wanted. Did
you look at any video and say, I'm doing something
in the second half of the year that maybe I
should have done in the like I was doing in
the first half year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would just say more just staying consistent with
my approach instead of trying trying new things every day.
I think just sticking with one thing that works for
me and I know that works for me is going
to be key.
Speaker 2: What was it like for you mentally, especially with I
mean it had to be your head spinning. I mean
it was such a whirlwind to go from as so
quick as you did from the Florida States and now
and then major leagues and be as successful as you were.
If you stepped away from that, what is it like
now that you kind of reflect back on that and
kind of step away from then and got the off season.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm glad I got thrown in the fire. I
don't think there's any other way to, you know, learn
on the go than being thrown in the fire. I
think if you have time to think about it, like
I just, I don't know. I think it's better to
just be on spot and reactive than you know, having
a big build up. You know, when things build up,
you start to think more. But I'm glad I just
got that opportunity to make the opening day roster and
and just go and figure it out.
Speaker 2: Your off season was different because you went from Florida
State to playing in the big leagues to being by
the way of being traded to your now an astro
and you know where you're supposed to be. What did
you do and how did you step away from the
game and then get back into it as you got
ready for spring trading here now?
Speaker 4: Yeah, spending more time with family. Honestly, I didn't see
them too much throughout the season, just because we're all
across the country. So I did have some more family time,
I could say this offseason, and then once it got
time to ramp him back up. It was just at
the facility every day, honestly, getting ready for this moment
right here.
Speaker 2: What are some of the things you've been working on,
because I mean baseball of course, is you can add
ten things or take away ten things from your swing
or your approach. What is it like for you the
process of like whittling down what's going to work for
you or things to try to improve.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would just say simplifying everything, keeping it simple.
As cliche as it sounds, it's true, It's true. I
think the best hitters are able to play so long
because they keep it simple, and they all have similarities
in their swing. There's always absolute of hitting, So keeping
it simple is the main thing for me.
Speaker 2: From high end college baseball to the limited time you
were in the minor leagues. The biggest difference in a
major league pitcher as compared to what you saw maybe
in the previous twelve calendar runs.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the caliber of pitching is obviously outstandingly better. Been
raising the stuff they have, the pitch, the pitch arsenal,
the the IQ of the pitchers is a lot is
a lot higher than you know a college pitcher.
Speaker 2: I could say for sure, they they.
Speaker 4: Know the game, they know they know how hitters react,
they know how to you know, get to their weak
spots and stick to it.
Speaker 2: Lastly, do you want to be a guy as you
ramp up with this? And then everybody's got different plans?
The veterans don't play as much younger guys like yourself.
I mean, do you do you want to be in
a line every day? How How does a perfect spring
training schedule for you layout over the next month or so? Yeah?
Speaker 4: If I could play every day, I would. I think
Joe has a program though, where he has guys playing
one day on one day off.
Speaker 2: But if I had a choice, I'd play every day.
Speaker 4: I think it's very important to see this caliber of
pitching early on to get in the rhythm of things,
you know, getting your first at bats under your under
your belt for the season and getting that nice momentum
into the twenty twenty six season.
Speaker 2: And Zach's got an opportunity to take that left field spot.
He had a cup of coffee. Any advice for him
as you went through this just a year ago.
Speaker 4: Yeah, honestly, the way he carries himself is my advice
to him, Like, keep doing the same thing he's he's
a professional. He can see the way he walks, the
way he goes about his business, his prep work, his
his recovery. It's it's all, it's all right. I've seen it.
I've seen how these guys do it, and I see
a resemblance.
Speaker 5: All right.
Speaker 2: Very lastly, Jake Myers covers a lot of space. Is
he calling you off too much to tell the truth?
And we won't tell him first? And really I would
say yes, and I want, I want, I want every
ball that's out there of the year.
Speaker 4: I want everyone, But I got to give it to
the center fielder for sure.
Speaker 2: That's because he's trying to work on his he's starting
to work on his percentages. Thanks for the time, appreciate,
thank you. All right, That again is Cam Smith. Great
outlook on like a life had an awesome March, But
March is something else. It's April. It's a regular season games,
it's a grind, it's playing six days a week, it's
having lemon off time. I mean, think about all the
number of high level major league games he played as
compared to what he did in the previous twelve months.
It's a pretty incredible transition. That's why so if you
guys can do it, he is. Yeah, he's gonna be
one of the gross stocks to see if he can.
You're hoping to because right now value is not super high,
right to where it was even last year in the
spring training like that. So you're hoping if you're buying
some cam Smith, you're hoping for a big twenty twenty six.
It can happen, and I'm hoping. I'm hoping it does well.
It needs to because if you know, and Zach will
join us here later on on the show today, he's
got to improving some numbers. That September wasn't a fluke.
And if the team has not made any acquisitions or
maneuvering to add I mean, look, you did add little Prafito,
you did add Cavin Bigio. I don't know if those
guys are going to press for starting time. I don't
definitely don't think Bigio will be, but maybe a little
Pafito will have an opportunity to do so. I there
needs to be competition because nobody has enough skins on
a wall to say this is my spot, with the
really exception of Jake Myers, but hell, Jake Myers was
being talked about intrigue speculations as of about three months ago.
So nobody should be thinking about long term real estate
until they can prove it at the major league level
for a long period of time less they're super confident. Yeah,
all right, it is uh ten forty two here on
a sports Talk seven ninety It is a Matt Thomas
show with Ross seven one three two one two five
seven ninety ten forty nine matted Ross with you here
from West Palm Beach, Florida, for day number two of
our three days of astrospring training coverage seven one three
two one two five seven ninety seven one three two
one two five seven nine zero. If you want to
follow us via Instagram or Twitter, at sports MT and
at Sports RV is the place to go. Who've been
Ross do an excellent job of shooting a bunch of
pictures of us live action scenes. But yeah, me too. Yeah,
I'm four away from fourteen hundred really at sports RV.
Check my list too on Instagram. You know what, if
you follow me right now, I'll follow you back, all
right at sports RV on Instagram, I am three away
from thirty two hundred. Wow. If you follow me, I
might follow you Bat will not follow you back up,
that's not for sure. Matt thinks he's better than you.
I didn't say that either. I'm just not gonna give
you false hope. Let me tell you what's gonna happen.
If you want your stocks to increase, if you want
your bitcoin to go up, you hold off on that one. Look,
give the gift of your to yourself and do it
at sports MT on the Instagram. All right, all right?
Who is this that?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: Zach Cole? That's our September hero. And he brought us
smart water too. That was nice of you. It was
very nice of him. Actually, I'm not taking a sip
of his drink. Are you kidding me? No chance, man,
break you in half. That's right. Zach Cole hit with
the weight room this offseason, Fellas, how are we doing? Hey?
How are you doing? More importantly, i'd headset's kind of cool. Ross.
I'm Matt, Matt. Yeah, we're gonna be best friends this year. Hope,
you're gonna hit thirty bombs. Okay, you want that left
field spot, I'm assuming correct.
Speaker 6: I will take whatever they need me for me. I'll
play any position and whatever whatever I can do it
to help them win.
Speaker 2: So what are you doing again? It's been limited workouts,
but I'm sure you've been here a couple days at
least left field, centerfield. What have you been working on
all three?
Speaker 6: They told me early they wanted me to work in
at all three spots to get as much work in
as I could, and so I've been taking reps at
all three, just trying to make myself versatile.
Speaker 2: You got the call up late. Take us through that
moment in time when you it was either a phone call,
a text visit with your manager. What was that like?
And then take us through the next twenty four hours
of you're trying to get yourself into an Astro uniform.
Speaker 6: That was an exciting time. I remember it was right
after a doubleheader game. I had actually just sp we
were in Round Rock when I was in Triple A.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had been there for.
Speaker 6: I think it was just fifteen games and we had
just played a double header on a Wednesday. Just saw
my agent and he's like, oh, I'll see after the
season's over, you know, getting prepared because I was supposed
to go to the Arizona Fall League. That's where they
had lined me up. They had told me I was
going there already when I was in Double A, so
I was like, yeah, I'll probably see you there and
I was like, who knows, maybe in Houston and I
crossed my fingers and it was a funny joke. And
then I walked right in and thirty minutes later got
the call and I had to call my agent back
and I was like, Hey, you might want to change
your flight because I'm going to Atlanta. It was a
really cool moment. But I met with my manager, Mickey
Story Yeah in Triple A. Great guy he called. He
he brought me in there and sat me down and
it was a it was cool. He asked me what
day I wanted off that week because I had just
played a doubleheader, and I was like, well, what's our
schedule for the rest of the week. How about Friday?
And he goes, no, it says you're playing in Atlanta
on Friday. And I was like what And I was like,
oh my. I was like, this has got to.
Speaker 2: Be a joke. But it was a It was a
dream cone true. Man. I held in the tears until
I called Mom and Dad. My god, how emotional is that?
Speaker 6: I mean, it was it was such a win for them.
I told them that we did it. It wasn't just
a me thing. I know, I was the one getting
to wear the jersey, but I mean, you can't do
it without Mom and Dad. I got so blessed. They're
such a blessing to me that they helped me through
every stage of my career. And you know, my dad
was the one who gave me the passion to love
the game.
Speaker 2: And did you play You played travel ball when you
were a kid, right of course, Well, then of course
they helped you out. Yeah, I have a travel daughter volleyball,
so yeah, if she makes it to big international, the
credit exactly half three quarters.
Speaker 6: I gave the I gave the home run. I gave
the first hit home run ball to Dad, And uh,
it was a no brainer. It was the easiest thing
I've ever done because it belongs to him. He's the one.
He's the one that got me there. Mom and Dad
are the ones that got me there, and I love.
Speaker 2: Them so much. If they're listening right now, I love him,
Mom and Dad. Let me there they listening to They
live in Missouri. They're not listening. It's okay, though, here's
the recording. Maybe you can find Yeah, you can find
it on any major podcast, I Radio Spot Cool. We're
somewhat famous, so that's what I've heard. No, you got
a chance about the ego, I guess no, you got
a chance to be major famous. Uh so you did
not go to Arizona Fall League? Correct? Why was that
the decision made?
Speaker 6: Because I got called up? So they were they were
obviously with the intention at the time, you know what,
I make the forty man roster coming up that off season,
and uh the play at the Fall League would determine that.
But since I made it to the big leagues and
played the last two weeks there, they felt that I
didn't really need to go and do that anymore. So
I got a I got the whole off season, if
you will.
Speaker 2: But you mean you, honestly you You got a lot
of people impressed with you because we didn't know much
about Johnestly and then you came in and had a
great September. When you look back at it, was it
just you were hit the ball really well at that
time that nothing no matter who you were gonna go against,
you were gonna hit the ball hard. Or was it
a case that you just you could try to slow
it down because you just talked about the emotions of
playing a doubleheader game and then trying to get family
and friends to Atlanta and do and that kind of
thing that had to been like a constant, like a
stopwatch about how fast you're going to get from point
A to point B.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, and I think about I think back on that
time now too, with just all the emotions running high,
and you know, we're here and we're there, and new
experiences all at the same time, meeting new people and
just trying to stay grounded. I take a look at,
you know, the things that came in grounded. Obviously, my
faith was number one. You know, God brought me to
the dance, so I'm gonna I'm gonna go home with him.
I'm gonna make sure I stay true to him. And
then obviously just relying on my close family and friends.
We have so many great guys in our clubhouse that
helped me through that, you know, stressful time as a rookie,
especially you know, thrown right into a playoff race as
well to some big games and situations. So to stay grounded,
to just try to be myself and not do too much.
You know, I don't need to come in and be
a superhero every game, because some games you just got
to do one small thing to help the team win,
if that's a walk or moving a base runner or
a bunt or making a play on defense. You don't
always have to be the guy that steps up and
hits the big home run or gets the walk off hits.
So having guys like in our clubhouse like that that
have been there, done that, with all the experience and accolades,
it's such a it's such a comforting feeling for a
rookie like myself, for such a young guy. But a
lot of times I really was just piecing it together,
just relying on what I knew that, you know, the
god given ability I had, what I had worked on,
what got me here. Just stick to those things, because
you know, if they bring me up, they liked the
player that I was in Double A and Triple A, right,
that's the guy they want in the league. So I
don't need to try to do anything different. I can
rely on what got me to this level. That's that's
Unfortunately he knew who that is.
Speaker 2: I don't know they get hear it, but I have
no idea why they were playing that. But it's terrible
timing we're testing it with distracting distraction games.
Speaker 6: But yeah, that it was really just piecing it together,
just trusting my abilities, and you know, just just remembering
this is the cool I've dreamed of this my whole life.
But it is baseball. Baseball is the same game. Doesn't
matter you know, what jersey you're wearing or where you're.
Speaker 2: Playing it at. It's the same game.
Speaker 6: They got to throw the white ball over the white plates.
So just trying to remember that and just trusting it.
It's the same game. Just do what I've always done.
Speaker 2: Go compete. It's interesting to me the timing of you
got the short time you were so successful and then
boom the season stops didn't make the playoffs unfortunately, to
where you didn't get to kind of in a way,
see how the story would have ended if you got
to keep working. So what's that like for you hitting
the off season knowing how successful you were, but also
trying to keep keep that going, knowing that there's gonna
be tape on you, there's gonna be certain ways you're
you're pitching, and kind of trying to figure that all
out during this offseason.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, and you know that's what it's like every off season,
we want to we want to try and capitalize on
on those things that we learned from the season. You know,
I was there for short time, but it was an
excellent opportunity to get to go up there, you know,
just just tip my feet in a little bit, just
trying to see like, Okay, this is what the big
leagues are like, yep, this is what is expected of me.
This is what it's gonna be like, this is what
I'm gonna have to compete at the level. So we
take a look at the things that I did well,
We celebrate those early. We're thankful for a great season,
very blessed, you know, God, you know, helped me so much,
gave me so much. And then it's time to get
to work, right. We take a look at those things
where you know I'm exposable, they'll stay loose, some things
where I have weaknesses, and we try to correct as
many of those as we can. You know, Let's say,
you know, if there's four four easy ways that I
can get exposed at the big league level, let's try
to knock off two of those this offseason and make
myself a more complete hitter. A'm more competitive at bad
because that at the end of the day, that's all
I'm trying to do is just be a more competitive
out every time I step at the box.
Speaker 2: So I call with us here on the Matt Thomas
Show with Ross from West Palm Beach, everybody's fastball, Triple AD,
Major League, but it's ninety five gonna go. I when
I talk to guys like yourself that are fresh to
the big leagues, it feels like to me, the off
speed stuff is the stuff that separates they're really good
Triple A guys and the guys that do at the
highest level agreed.
Speaker 6: You know, obviously the stuff we're seeing, especially the way
the game is developed, you know, over the last twenty years,
it's it's the best it's ever been.
Speaker 2: There's no doubt.
Speaker 6: I talk to guys like Bagwell who will say the
same thing. You know, even guys like Korea who are saying,
like the league has changed since I came up versus
right now, it's the toughest it's ever been. You know,
Guys are throwing harder, stuff is moving more, and it's difficult.
There's there's no other way to say it. But for me,
the biggest thing that I noticed in The difference from
the between the miners and the majors was just the
way the pitchers and the catchers think the game. When
you're on offense, you know, it's all chess, you know,
the way they set you up, the way they you know,
target your weaknesses, the pitches that they throw, it's all
a plan that they have set up beforehand, and you
have to try to make you know your counter move.
You know, like, all right, if they're they're gonna keep
throwing this pitch over and over again until I can
hit it. As soon as I prove I can hit
that pitch or lay off of it, here the next challenge,
you know, maybe it's off speed away until I prove it,
and then it's heaters in and then they're gonna keep
trying to find ways, and then it's just you know,
he evolves, you evolve, he changes, you change. So it's
just this constant chess match. And you know, a lot
of the times in the minor leagues, it's just you know,
guys are like, here's my stuff, this is what I'm
good at. I'm gonna go right at you. But in
the league that they know what you can do, there's
no secrets. So they're gonna try to exposure weaknesses for sure.
Speaker 2: So you hit the home run on the very first
at bat, very first pitch, too correct something like that. Oh,
come on, you know he knows what was the pitch
it was. I think it was a cutter.
Speaker 6: It was a cutter, and I was just really really
hoping I didn't swing and miss and.
Speaker 2: Your hooks bros were watching it live as they were.
How many text messages did you have when you look
at your phone after the game?
Speaker 6: Too many? Really, too many to read. I had to
I couldn't. I was and I was too I couldn't.
Speaker 2: Come up with response and copy and pasted it. Yeah,
it was.
Speaker 6: It was a live love you bro, keep it nice
and simple. But they were great, man. Getting to see
that video and a lot of the guys are here
right now. I'm getting to talk to them. I got
to see them as everyone's getting back in this week.
And they're making more money than they are, right, I mean,
it's truth.
Speaker 2: It's still a little bit. They're not making you like
buy dinners and stuff, are they You're not making great money? No? No, no,
they don't do it.
Speaker 6: No, I'm just uh, I'm just I'm just happy to
see him and uh, just to be able to like
you said that that experience, you know, getting to see
that video was was unbelievable. Like those guys they truly,
they truly cared about me. And to see their raw
reaction after a moment like that, it was it made
me emotional. It did because I care about each and
every one of those guys, and you grind with them
and the miners. It's tough, man, and you go through
the stuff.
Speaker 2: Get up for what you run. Crawford boxes presents challenges
that left center field that it darts back. That's also
a tricky spot. You can I'm assuming you can practice
that into your blue in the face, but you need
to be in a live competition for that to become
a part of your I got this part of my
defensive game, right, I.
Speaker 6: Would say, so, yeah, there's nothing better than than doing
the thing. So we, like I said, we practice on it.
The fields we actually have back here are replicas of
Dyke and part men wise to help us actually get
accustomed to that. But obviously, yeah, if if left field
is is what they need from me, then I'll get
as many reps I can there and get more comfortable
with it for sure, But like I said, all three
for me is what they told me. So I'm just
working wherever they need me and trying to be as
versa of all as again.
Speaker 2: All right, well, I mean you got the challenge in
front of you. Now, what is it being like here
in camp? It's obviously a new experience for you being
somebody who is expected to try and win a spot.
How is that dealing with that? Mentally? For me?
Speaker 6: I love it because for me, at the end of
the day, you know, this is just a game, you know,
and we can go out here and there's always going
to be competition.
Speaker 2: It's the name of this game, right.
Speaker 6: It's all performance and unfortunately is a killer be killed
type world. And for me, you just can't focus on that.
You know, we have great guys in here, and obviously
we all know what we're doing. Everybody's trying to go
out there and win their spot, go out there and
help the team win as much as they can, and
we just focus on those things. We just focus on
going out there and being competitive and trying to keep
guys up because at the end of the day, a
lot of these guys that you're competing with are gonna
be your teammates, So we don't wanna we don't want
to create, you know, divides, you know, if you know
guys are going for the same position. And for me
just being able to come out here and enjoy playing
and show what I've been working off in the off season,
it's just it's just so much fun.
Speaker 2: I love being out here. I love competing with the guys.
Speaker 6: I love coming out here, learning from the veterans, and
just excited to become a better baseball player.
Speaker 2: You are well beyond your years. It comes of interviewing skills.
You get a ten out of ten. We're gonna have
you on like every other day. So every time you
got a home run, you're gonna be on the show
with us. Hopefully it's at least thirty times this year.
Oh my god, at least you have good speed. How's
your speed? You very fast? I can run? Are you,
Jake Myers? I can run? He's very very humble, Oh
my god, humility as well. Wow, I'm I'm not raised Jake.
He's pretty quick, but uh, he hit the cap straining
last year, right. Let him take it easy. If you
run down there and tell him to turn that off.
It was a huge favor. We can't run away for
a couple of minutes, Zach. It was really nice to
visit with you face to face. We will be talking
to you a couple of times in the course of
the year, maybe in the clubhouse as well. We wish
you nothing but the very best, and you have been
given a great opportunity and I hope you make the
most of the Congratulations.
Speaker 6: Thank you guys so much for having me on the show.
You guys are you guys are awesome guys. Oh you
don't know us that well? Oh no, we're big nice
now I can. I can tell right away. You guys
are good dudes. Thank you so much for having me
and all the people out there listening. Uh, Gostress will
see you guys, Mom too, Mom and Dad will send
a little podcast to him.
Speaker 2: Dad, I love you all right, Zach Cole joining us
here on The Matt Thomas Show with Ross. We took
a quick time out back with the second hour The
Matt Thomas Show with Ross from West Palm Beach.
Speaker 1: Here on seven ninety is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross.
Speaker 2: Here we go with the second hour of The Matt
Thomas Show with Ross. If you're not a Zach Cole fan, now, Uh,
you got something wrong with you. He's actually too nice.
He's awesome. Love his perspective, love his mindset, Oh my god,
and just is he's he's too nice for us. Speak
for yourself, Matt, all right, that's fine. I'm a nice
human being sometimes really to the general population except your partner.
But that's fine. What all right? Eleven? Oh? What is it?
What time is it? I even know what time it is.
We're super late. Oh yeah, we're late. That's fine. It
was worth it, kidding, that was absolutely worth it. Yeah.
We got Christian Walker and Joey Littleraffido still coming up
between now and the fathers of the show, and that
Cole awesome was an interview. Tomorrow we're gonna have, for
sure Dana Brown, and for sure we'll have Jake Meyer's
visit here too, So that's for sure, and the rest
of we will work on as the afternoon progresses. Uh, he's
happy to be here. It's interesting that they're going to
give him a sample size in all three outfield positions. Yeah, that,
you know, look to get into a trade conversation with
him would be moot because we don't. He has no
intelligence on that whatsoever, but it'll be interesting to see
if some move gets made whatever that precipitates him not
necessarily being the everyday left fielder. I'm not I'm not
assuming the Jakes on the trade block, but if you've
been on there once, there's no reason why you can't
be brought up again. Well, the the and he'll be
pipeline about Zach. Cole says plus speed and plus plus
on Oh, I love that, which I mean, who's the
last really devastating arm you had out there and in
the outfield? Well, Kyle Tucker has good Kyle Tucker was good, great,
Josh Reddick had a great arm, and right, yeah, Josh Reddick,
Josh was good. Uh in terms of plus Spring Spring
was a decent arm. Pretty good arm for sure. I'm
gonna go with Josh Reddick. Great arm. Okay, I'm sure
Josh is listening to us right now, would it would
greatly appreciate the kind words. So yeah, that's uh, the
first little sample of Zach. Did Zach join us? I'm
sure late last year, I don't remember. I honestly can't recall.
I think so, yeah, but that was that was great
stuff with him, and you know he's he's got every opportunity.
He's gonna play all over the place. Very humble, sa
I can run a little bit. I do love And
it's it's the always the one on one interview question
when you have a guy that's young that gets the
call up, what was the story behind it? Because look, okay,
you have to hit a fastball. We know that we
have to had a change, but that's part of Many
league baseball. But the story behind getting to a ballpark
and getting your family and calling mom and dad, I
just I think it's, uh, it's it's stuff that you
don't normally get when you read a story about a
particular player. So I was glad to have him on there.
All right, if you'd like to join us today, and
you may do so at seven one, three, two, one two, five,
seven nine zero old all of our regular as as
WEX would call them, signature segments. We're gonna push back
the later in the week. We're gonna skip cup feelings
this week. Oh man, we are doing shut your bomb
mess up. We're gonna do it on Thursday from Charlotte
and stuff. Okay, that's one of those things that just
we just that's a half hour event we need to
just do. So we'll do that Thursday when I'm in
Charlotte and you're back in Houston, so we can check
gut feelings. How do we do on that by the weeks?
I don't know. Okay, I'm sure I had a good
couple of weeks in a row, so it might have
been a bad week. I will say the All Star
ratings have come in. They were very, very good. Now,
obviously they had a huge lead in from the Olympics.
They're counting the Telemoondo numbers and the streaming numbers now
and the and people are some like throwing a parade,
but I would, I would, And so just in the
way that this wasn't one of the best Super Bowls
of all time, but it was one of the highest
rates right right, doesn't mean that it was just that
that compelling. Well, the reality is this, when when these
TV networks want to brag about anything, it's always for
the positive. We both had the Rocket sweeping the Clippers. Oh,
oh close, we both have hater starting the season on
the IL. That's gonna be a hit. Oh he's throwing today.
Wish you mentioned that? Oh I wrote this down last Tuesday,
barring and this is before you May's comments. I said,
barring injury, Read Shepherd will not be a full time
starter at any point the rest of the season. Yeah,
if you didn't got catch, said Lean was asked when
you're gonna insert read Chepper in the lineup. His answer
was not anytime soon, probably not ever. Jonathan Allen had
the uh Cougar's on a seven game winning streak. Jonathan,
you should apologize for that right now. Oh well, I
gotta apologize because I lost last night. You're a hill.
How about the blind referees calling a kickball? Yeah, I'm
sick of Big twelve sending the best referees who are
also blind at the same time. Uh, And I said,
Rockets still will finish top three. We'll see. It's a
meat left from that bone. We're getting there, and I'll
start Thursday in Charlotte, arrested, refreshed, ready to go. That's
exactly right, all right? Seven one three two one two
five seven ninety. If you want to join our conversation
seven one three two one two five seven nine zero
on Twitter, it's at Sports MT and at Sports Every
one of the things that was talked about today. Uh
when the with the media scrum with Joe Spotta was
abs and we'll discuss a little bit about that when
we return over. We forgot to wish everybody a happy
fat Tuesday today. I have a fat Tuday, Maddie. We're
going to body grow. We're gonna go get some seafood.
The nights on seafood. That's on Key Kick gus On
John Lie. They don't have that in West Boone Beach.
I'm Jumbala Palm No, well they don't know how to live, Matthew.
We uh, we actually threw out a topic. Why not
We thought about going to the bed Robster oh nails
a little further and then Palm City, I don't know,
but Tender Bay don't lie biscuits Okay, yeah, they get
the new CEO. He's been moving and shaking. They started
all those commercials and he stopped in those shrimp, which
apparently was they were losing a bunch of money, were
taking a bath on the Yeah it was coming and
saying I'll have seventy five shrimp scampy please. Now they
were of a size of a nickel, so I kind
of get that. Yeah, shrimp Uh, it is the Matt
Thomas j ol Ross. We've got more guests coming up
along the way between now and two o'clock this afternoon.
Seven one, three, two five seven nine zero. If you
want to get in, we'll hold our gut feeling. We're
gonna skip a week on the gut feelings. Okay, Well
we'll refresh those up next year show. So ABS was
talked about today. Nothing new on that was just you know,
a topic of conversation. Uh. They are going to work
on it here to have the guys get ready for
it so they're further and they'll obviously do a lot
of testing during the spring training games because they're gonna
be allowed to. And you'll keep I think you'll keep
your two as long as you keep I think you
keep them as long as you keep winning. Yeah, which
is how I think they should do talent challenges in
the in the NBA. But they never ask my opinion
about it. They owned and they also like to keep
everybody out of there on a certain amount of time.
You don't want to be there all hours of the night, idea, Yeah,
because challenges don't. I mean, this ABS system should take
fifteen seconds twenty seconds of pop. Yeah, if that should
be very nice, very streamlined, yep. And it has been
basically discussed. Batters can do it, catchers can do it,
Pictures can do it. But at least from the Astros perspective,
the batters can do it and the catchers can do it,
they have to ask the pictures to probably refrain from that.
Although there is a competitive spirit these guys have, and
sometimes they think something is so egregious that they'll be like,
let's go try. I'm gonna say we're gonna see very few,
if any picture challenges because even they know we had
Spencer Raghedy yesterday, He's like, I think everything is straight yep.
So also, I mean Spencer Arraghetty is more I guess
gonna be transparent than maybe some other pictures. But I
think it's a smart idea. And Joe Spotta mentioned that
they're gonna be keeping tabs, They're gonna they're gonna have
a little they're gonna be going they're gonna catch everybody's
hit rates when they want to challenge stuff. So they're
gonna see who's good, who's not, who's gonna get priority.
It's gonna be very interesting to figure out how how
this is gonna play out, Which catchers and which batters
are gonna be good at it. He said he's been
picking Saesar Salazar's brain because he was good at it
as well, and trying to figure this out. And even
even gamesmanship from catchers who where they try to frame
Matthew to trick the umpires right, maybe now they'll frame
late or move to try to trick batters as well
into getting bad challenges. Can I give you a scenario.
A pitcher that has four balls in a row or
five out of six is aggravated, frustrated, loses his not
necessarily loses cool, but his startled a little bit by
the fact that he's not throwing strikes, and he throws
one across the plane, doesn't get a call. You're gonna
see some pictures doing this, and probably at the angst
and anger of the managers, because again, if most teams
tell their pictures don't do it, that means even though
you may be in the heat of the ball, you
may want to, you know, tip your cap and say, yeah,
I want this thing looked at. Yeah. I'm not gonna
say that's not gonna happen, but I feel like it's
going to be fairly rare, just because of the instructions
of at least here in organ I don't know what
they're doing in Pirates camp. I haven't heard the word
out of Dodgers camp, but Houston Astros camp. Yeah, sounds
like without saying it like pictures he shit, you bum masses. Though,
I'm excited about it. I am very, very very excited
about it. At least it's a step in the right
direction instead of getting twenty six thousand wrong calls. Right,
we can do two. It's great. Well, I mean two
per game or maybe more. We'll see come come to
come to the dark side sports, the dark side. I
mean I said it's a step in the right direction.
I think it's this is as far as going to go.
But I've been wrong things. Yeah, Well, the the problem
you run into is saying forever. Forever's a long time. Yeah. Now,
if the college football Playoff goes to twenty four teams
in twenty seventy three and I'm out here, yeah, that's
not gonna do much. You said, yeah, it's not a parent.
I have no idea who the hell's playing past sixteen. Ever,
I mean that that's where you can run into a
little bit of trouble. Yeah, and maybe video will be
so refined, but I think you're going to run into
just as much. We need the human aspect of it,
and that comes from the players as much as it
does a lot of players. But I think it's especially
the guys. I think because we've been talking about this
for several years and we've been coming here for spring
training for several years. I think the players that we
talked to when we used to have the older the bragman,
the l two vas, those type of veteran guys, they
were more against it because that's what they were used to.
The more we talk to the younger guys, the pitchers
who have been through it, the minor leagues who have
been through it, they experienced it and they know it's
not a it's not an unknown for them, and they
are definitely players who are more apt to agree with
that there needs to be something done. So I think
as the years go along and you get a player
populous that has all lived through this, I think people
are gonna get more used to it. And then at
some point, especially when you have say you've used your
two challenges and the bases that are loaded with the
game on the line in the ninth enning and a
bad call insides the game. It's very rare, but it happens.
It's where you're going to say, we know what, we
have it installed to get every call right, let's just
do it. So you're gonna need a generational change in
the players. You're probably gonna need a generational change in
the umpire too, because the umpire union is gonna be
none too pleased about this for a while. And you
still got a lot of guys in there fifties and
sixties that are umpiring baseball games. Yeah, so yeah, I
mean so Honestly, this was a pretty big step for
a union that has been against this larger part in
the umpire union. So now you're maybe twenty years of this,
who knows, but it is at least as they move
in the right direction. I've always been a proponent of
insert replay. I frankly want more of it. I really
was happy many years ago when we were able to
pass interfere challenge calls, and that was an un mitigated
disaster and I can't believe how bad it turned out.
And I don't want the NFL to give up on
that because pass interfariance calls, especially because their spot foul
penalties are such a game changer. They are. Yeah, this
is more of it's a more of a there's less
gray area when it comes to balls and strikes. And
there was an interesting, interesting grass grass that I saw.
I'm actually gonna go ahead retweet them right now at
sports RV on my Twitter, but I want I actually
wanted to show you the software, but we're on right now,
so it's fine. They've had heat maps for balls and
strikes for years and years, so you look at the
eventually as the years go along that the umpires have
gotten really good. They've gotten a lot better at calling
the actual true strike zone. So they're getting closer and
closer to the true strike shown. And that's these umpires
who are at the Union. They're the best in the
world at calling balls and strikes. They don't want to
give up that skill in order to just hand it
over to machines because that's what separates them from say
triple A or double A. Correct umpires get a bunch
of twenty four year olds out there. Yeah, so, and
that's a way to bust up a union if they
like Baseball wanted to do that, like, yeah, we can
get anybody. Matt Thomas can go out there and call
out and safe at home and have the back of
a review in his back pocket. You'd love to get
you out of there, Maddie. You know what I told
you this. For many years, my greatest regret in life
was not taking away skipping a year in college or
just delaying it a year and going to umpiring school. Well,
I still and I have very few ragrats in my life,
but that's one of them. Well, the begs the question, Matt,
are you ready to be a union scab? No? Well,
you fulfill your dreams.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 2: It's funny. My wife has developed a friendship. Remember the
Indians manager. It was back in the Indians Mike Hargrove
was a Baltimore Oral's manager too, and not really okay,
he was a manager in the nineties and early two thousands.
He was managing the Cleveland Indians in a playoff series
against the Red Sox, and it showed up in my timeline.
He got tossed from a playoff game three pitches in.
So I sent the photo. I sent the tweet to
my wife to send it to her friend, I said,
this is mcg grover's guy toss, and that was no
boxes around the umpiring, there was no challenges they were
and Dwight Good was pitching for the Indians. It shows
how how long that he was still active in the game.
And it was terrible. And so it's gotten better. It's
gotten I would say, forgetting about the box, forgetting about
the abs and the thing of it is umpire scorecard.
Twitter account was not around in nineteen ninety two, No,
it was. It's around in twenty twenty five. You want
it to be one hundred percent. You love ninety seven,
but most guys following that ninety one percent category. And
think about this, if you do something really well, ninety
one times out of one hundred, you're considered excellent at
your job. That's you just started. But if you're missing
twenty calls a game, we're getting two. I don't know
on average, what is it one hundred and eighty two
hundred pitches or something like that. Right, that's it's a lot.
It's sixteen. You're changing the complexion of sixteen at backs. Now,
the question is are you changed sixteen at bats because
it's strike one that was called or how many of
those were strike through the ended of the bat or
extended of that? I believe last year there was twelve
hundred player twelve hundred something strikeouts where the bat should
have continued or perhaps a walk it should have been
that to me, that on your side of the argument,
that's way too many. Yeah, I love it. Twenty eight
it's a Matt Thomas shield Ross. If you'd like to
be a part of our show today, we've not taken
anybody to call, and if you'd like to call and
say hello, let's go see how you're doing. Available. We
got a busy guest list, but we're available. Yeah. We
had a nice visit with Zach Cole earlier. You heard
a little bit from Cam Smith. We will stay with
the outfield of Joey Libraffito and we'll go to the
infield with Brandon with Brandon Walker. Brandon Walker man, that's right, right,
Christian Christian. Who's Brandon Walker and Brandon Brandon? I get
all these guys mixed UK Christian Walker down eleven pounds.
I've really gotta figure out how we did the diet thing,
whether he just ate less or he worked it off
calorie count, maybe got a steps up during that time.
I don't know. We'll figure it out. We'll find out.
That's what you reason, were running around taking care of
his baby. That's true. Matt and Ross with you here
from West Palm Beach Astros spring training, and just to
let you know if those that don't know, I presume
most people know that the Astros share the same complex
as the Nationals. Now, the Astros are left of the stadium.
The Nationals are right at the stadium their practice field.
Say that, I'm assuming the comparable facilities they're having, like
a it's not an intersquad game. There's nobody out there defensing.
They're just having live batting practice. And we're gonna get
a home run here sent this way. You know this right,
we are a good thirty feet past the fence. It
could happen. It's about if you hear screaming and rustling,
that's me. One of us is taking a baseball out
of the dome. So yeah, they are. We are out
at the field.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: The guy throwing for the Nationals. Is that a fifty?
Is that what that is? Yeah? Is that a real?
Is that a Is that a real person? Or is
that like a I think he's a human being, med Ai.
You know what I mean, Like you see like a
hitting like a throwing coach or something, you know, something
hot arm pickoff man, he threw a pickoff. Yeah. Oh
that's a real dude. We gotta look at the lefty. Yeah.
So I wonder if they're working on uh some kind
of abs thing too. Right now, Nationals number This is
great live radio. Stay with us here. Well, I'm worried
about you getting hit. It's a PJ Poohlan. Okay, that's
my dog, PJ Poohlan on a five Tuesday Many. I
think he's having a shrimple at his condo after the
event from Marion, Massachusetts. I don't. Oh no, it's a
crab boils lobster lobster. That's funny. Oh, University of Connecticut,
go Huskies. Yeah, he probably knows George Springer or at
least familiar with him.
Speaker 6: Oh.
Speaker 2: He made his major league debut at twenty eight. So
he's just a guy. I you are, yes, you right?
Plus at one fourteen, Hey fifty, you're just a guy.
There'd be no way that was one four or five.
Whip hoof pg pol I got some things to work,
is it? P o U l A N is I
P O U l I N Pulling. I keep saying
Poland because I'm just being like, you're trying to be
You're trying to make your cage the guys in Massachusetts.
You're trying to catch his name j Pulling. What was
that for? I don't know. He's telling you're selling Jeff
Passing there a little bit there. Okay, So uh, not
that this is going to necessarily resonate with people up there.
I'm scared. Oh, he's there's one coming our way. You're
not that far off. I'm gonna what are we about?
Three fifty by down the line? No, it's got to
be further than that. What is thirty six in the
right field line? Okay, so we're three seventy five? We're safe,
I thinkfully, I think we are.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you saw this or not, Rossy,
but uh, Tony Clark is the players, the MLB Players
Association executive leader. Well, he resigned today out of nowhere,
well suddenly, well I don't know nowhere, but I don't
think it's out of nowhere. It was suddenly. So Tony
Clark announced his resignation. This is the time of year
where Tony Clark goes to all the different Major League
teams and gives them a labor update. Yes, and uh,
he was supposed to hold his first meeting with players
to Cleveland Cleveland. Yes, he said, ain't nobody got time
for that. I resigned. So the first thought was, uh, oh,
he's really afraid he doesn't want his name attached to
this impending lockout slash strike. That is not the case.
Apparently there's some improprieties with MLB union funds that he's
attaching his name to. Unfortunately, there is an Eastern District
of New York investigating alleged financial improprieties at the union. Okay,
so you're saying, well, what do you do. My guess
is he either spent money on lavish vacations, yeah, big meals,
strip clubs. I don't think he was taking money directly
from the union funds and putting him into his bank account,
but I'm sure there were some interesting expense reports turned
in with that. That's that's that's kind of fair to say.
Right Eastern District of New York is investigating in the
finances and other dealings of the MLBPA, including questions about
one team Partners, a multi billion dollar group licensing company
part owned by the union. Huh, and players weigh a
youth baseball initiative. So that sounds heavy in the weeds
for our audience and for us frankly, But here's the
here's the part B of this. So when you party
the MLBPA co owns, it's being investigated for impropriety. So
apparently the leader in the clubhouse not to use a
baseball or a golf term. I like that. He is
a guy by the name of Bruce Meyer. He was
Clark's right hand man. Oh, he has been the lead
negotiator for the union since twenty eighteen. At the bare minimum,
he will be the interim successor. And the thought is
that he is going to be the full time replacement,
because again, you are six months, well eight months away
from potentially being locked out. You're supposed to He's supposed
to be meeting with teams today. He resigned. So I'm
reading Bob Knightingale story which, oh, you gotta take it
or leave it on this one. Meyer, who was promoted
to the union's deputy executive director in twenty twenty two.
According to Bob Nightingale, is public enemy number one for
Commissioner Rob Manford and his executive stat oh, okay, owners meeting,
MLB the union, the union, the ownership find him. Let's
see by the way, o' clark likes him because he
was a reasonable guy in a former fifteen year All
star first baseman, and they have a lot of respect.
But Meyer, according to this report from Bob Nightingale, says
that he is tenacious. Okay, I can appreciate tenaciousness if
you're a negotiator, hard knows labor lawyer okay who MLB
labor officials despise. They call him unreasonable during their last negotiations,
frequently clashing, accusing him of being bad for baseball, and
his one club executive told Bob Nightingale, this is going
to be a blood bath. Oh boy, I love this
all right. I'll enjoy all the baseball you can. Folks.
Word around baseball was that Clark was going to make
the rounds and tell all the teams that a salary
cap is ridiculous for baseball, non negotiable, non negotiable, and
that a Dodger payroll of four hundred million dollars is
good for this sport because that would infuse. Even if
you don't go to the Dodgers, you would presume the
guys who teams would want to spend along the same
lines with gods, which is reality. That's five teams, that's
not twenty, that's not ten, it's not twenty. We've seen
there's at least three different economic ecosystems in baseball. It's
the super halves, it's the kind of halves, and then
it's the have nuns. Man, there are most of them
not having and some are kind of between. Yeah. The
message apparently that the union was trying to spread to
the teams and they will ultimately do this is that
it's the owners, not the players, who will be responsible
for shutting the game down with a lockout. This message
was supposed to start today in Cleveland's at their spring
training facility. It has been postponed because of the quote
unquote leadership change. Wow, this is gonna get ugly. We're
not starting on time next year, are we We're not
coming here. That hurts for you to say that out loud.
We can come here and hang out, not really when't
that know? The building will be closed. We can go
to the problem is the hotel rooms are gonna be
that's true. Okay, we know what I might do. I
might take a real vacation next year. Oh I don't
believe that. I want you to because if because the
All Star break coincides with us coming down here, turn
your phone off, get the vacation. Let's do it. You're
gonna try to text me a bunch of stuff and
see if I do you ever hear from me? Really? No,
you don't ever text. And when I text you it
takes weeks on end to get us. Weeks feels like
a slight exaggeration. Slight. Okay, I'm gonna text you tomorrow whatever.
We'll be separating, so we're gonna be we're flying on
different planes coming back. We're gonna shot the airport together. Yeah,
but you're leaving earlier than I do, going to Charlotte. No,
I'm saying, what are you gonna do for those that
You're gonna be like four extra hours? Yeah, I'm probably
going to your cafe. Uh, well, I thought about having
you dropped me off with. They have the Fonsa's leather
jacket there you can check it out. Yeah, but they
have a casino too, But that's we're gonna drop you
off with the casino. I don't know. Well if is
it from the airport twenty minutes? I don't know if
we have time for all that. We don't know. We
don't talk, but the thought take the car and take
him back. I can't take the carcass off. No, because
of the car. If something happens and I'm driving it,
there's an accident, we're in troub because it's under your name.
Oh okay, we can't. We can't afford to pay you. No,
no one, I'll give you my license. Oh you have
to travel. Get moving on. This is a terrible, terrible conversation.
No one cares about it. I love it. I know
you love it. I'm still ahead. Joey christ Walkers. We'll
get back to sports, are we that? Dude? What's there
doing the news? That new? But you know what we
got interrupted yesterday? What if Joey Cooks shows up all
right now? Is it joe Cooks? I thought it was
Joey Cooks. I'll let you ask him. Okay, I will
ask him, because Joe Cooks is what baseball references seven
one three, two one two five seven. Honey, I'm gonna
throw this out to the audience, Are you all ready
for this? Are you ready for us not to be
here next February? Because may it sounds like to me
the owners are not leaving the negotiating table without a
salary cap because you know what they're doing. They're gonna
they're gonna try to police themselves. The Dodgers and the
Mets want to say, we can't spend an work because
the rule don't allow us to. Yeah, and you're gonna
require a floor, yep, but that floor is probably gonna
be a minimal because honestly, the Marlin unless you share
television dollars, and I don't see the Dodgers sharing the
television dollars, the Reds and the Marlins. I just don't.
They're not gonna want to. They have to figure something out.
I'd be I don't know. There just feels like there's
a million eight different angles. Again, absolutely, and we haven't
even seen a single legal brief on it or any
kind of memo on this. There's a million things we're
not thinking of. Yeah, because the first thing I thought
when I read the story last week about it was
the owners do want it because the Dodgers and the
Mets are tired tired of out spending everybody, let me
say some cash. They want to say some cash, put
a cap. I can't spend any more. Oh sorry, guys.
It's like when you say your wife handles the economics. Okay,
I can't do that, guys. I can't go on to
approach with you to can't go to golf because the
wife or you're on the salary cap. Yeah, we're on
tight money. I like that. Can't get the whole pass,
You're capped out there you go. Eleven forty six, it's
Madden Ross from West Palm Beach. If you like to
join a seven one three two one two five seven honey?
Has that? Is that thought crossed your mind? Baseball fans
with a lot of baseball fans, let's say, of course,
seven five seven honey. Will you enjoyed this season more?
Because we are in impending trouble for twenty twenty seven,
it's Madden Ross and West Palm Here on seven ninety
eleven fifty two, Madden Ross from West Palm Beach. A
couple more gances to join us live. From the course
of program, we missed our exact whole conversation.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: Impressed with the nice young man, good head on his shoulders. Yeah,
zero complaints about that young guy, strong fast, got a
plane all out three outfield positions. Yeah, he was a
late bloomer coming out of high school. Maybe he's a
late bloomer getting in the major leagues. And his mom
and dad are listening to us in Missouri right now.
Love it seven seven one. Even though we are here
in West Palm, we always like talk to our great listeners.
And we'll start with James and Conroll on seven Honty. James,
thank you for waiting, and good morning to you.
Speaker 9: Good morning, and yes I'm anxious for the baseball season
to start. We'll see what happens. But I'm a big
Astro fan. But that's how why I called. I called
to talk about the Cougar's basketball game last night against
Iowa State. A couple of things, Uh, A few things.
Number one, we're up by ten with four minutes to go.
I don't know why we couldn't slow the game down.
Number two is I had a flashback from last year
against the Gators when we lost the championship. They did
the same thing last night. Is they crashed with two
minutes to go, and so they went down, they lost
the ball, they didn't get a shot off the time
clock ran out. I don't know what's going on something
with the Cougars in the last two minutes of the game. Okay.
And the third thing is, I don't know why we're
not picking on people who can't shoot a free throw.
They have some free throw shooters that are in the
sixty percent tile for making them. Why aren't we fouling
them and sending them to the line. So I'll hang
up and listen to you. But those are my comments.
Thank you for taking my call.
Speaker 2: This team is not as good defensively as it has
been in years past. That's one thing. Number two, slowing down.
It's a thirty second shot lock. You can't go on,
you can't go into four corners. You've h has never
been a run up and down the court. Let's get
to ninety points as fast as possible. No, So I
can't speak to that. And by the way, they do
have the thoroughbreads to do that. If you want to
see Nat can do it. Uzan's been there for a
long time, Manuel Sharp has been there. Flemings is you know,
is probably the most talented freshman or one of the
top two in the entire country. And free throw shooting,
they did shoot it, send it go out of the
free throw line? Who missed a free throw late? And
I always take out the offensive rebound. You know, you
can't hunt and peck for bad free throw shooters because
sometimes the other team doesn't put those bad free throw
shooters on the floor. And secondly, you want to spending
all your time chasing down bad free throw shooters. You
were in a one possession game. Why would you do that? Yeah,
you're not playing a hack a shack. Yeah, two minutes left. No,
So it was about It wasn't a great It wasn't
a you know, I'm not gonna say it was a
bad loss. It was disappointing. You want to go to
Hilton Coliseum three points on the road at Iowa State.
I mean there was a top ten basketball team gang,
you know. Now, do you want to question the foul descrepancy.
I think it ended up being twenty one to fourteen
in favor of the number of fouls being called by Houston,
But it was like ten to two for a while,
but Houston always fouled. I look, I don't watch Jojo
Tuckler is a foul machine. I love him, but he
fouls a lot of people with the caveat that. I'm
not breaking down a bunch of you of Hed Cougar's team,
but they're their physical defensive team absolutely, so guys can
get into foul trouble. I'm sorry, I just yeah, it's
aggravating that you couldn't win the game because it was
it was a one possession game. You did have a
large lead late in the contest. The team got into
an offensive run and they had all me his rotation
as eight players. It's not like you you were going
deep to your bench and moving guys around and putting
them in uncomfortable spots. I mean, all are all thirty
plus minute guys. Nice road test and help you in March. Well,
I mean, now, what would have done is it probably
would and we were listening to Joel Narnie coming into
the state here today. It might have put the bracketologists
put at the Coupars on a one line. But you
know again, I want to I'm looking for some of
the parts. Anybody that thought they were gonna go three
and oher with Iowa State, all right, peeling the curtain
back for sixty seconds here Okay, there is a food
truck that's assembled here on the concourse at the stadium
we're at. Yes, the name of this is Donut Envy.
Speaker 10: Yes.
Speaker 2: What it serves is hot donuts and fresh lemonade. Okay,
does that not sound fantastic right now? Sounds good, Matt.
Now these two people, it's a husband and wife that
own this thing, because they're back in this trailer, this
trailer thing back up. Okay, would it be too rude
to ask them to make us a batch? Yes, they're
trying to get out of here, Matt. I don't know.
The wife's directing traffic, the guy's driving. They're not going
to PLoP down and make you a donut. Clothes mouths
don't get fit, Thank you, Jonathan very much. They're trying
to get home, trying to get out of you. Should
I ask him, go ahead, ask him for a donut?
Excuse me, sir, I don't make it anywhere Saturday. I'm
leaving tomorrow. I told him not to ask. Gosh, these
people are so Oh they're being nice, but they're being nice,
but they're like, this guy's being ridiculous tomorrow. What is
wrong with this guy? Oh? God, they're shaking their heads.
They're giving courtesy laughs, but they really want to They're
not gonna be here on Thursday. They're giving courtesy laughs,
but they want to spin at Matt's feet. Oh they're
calling me in a whole big time. Can you believe
that guy? No, the trailer is all hitched up, the
doors are closed. They're trying to leave the stadium. Doesn't
mean they can't stop and open up the friar. No,
they're not gonna stop and fry you up a batch
of donuts. What do they say, Jonathan? What do the
kids say, Jonathan? Closed? Look? What happened? What happened to this?
Open mouth is hungry too? We canna stop and get
some donuts to wake Oh my god, Yeah, we can
get some donuts. I got a muffin for you, chocolate.
I don't want your muffin all right? Twelve oh one
News pull it from the Breakfast News at noon is next.
Speaker 1: Is The Matt Thomas Show with Ross twelve.
Speaker 2: Five at inch Town Hour. Remember three of The Matt
Thomas Show with Ross is underway. We get you to
the midday when we give you the top news headlines today,
we present to you Ross prepared formulated.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean we're here spring training at West Palm Beach Matts.
We can give you the quick top ashos headlines and
they will go national. Joe Sponda speaking to the media
early today, a lot of time spent talking about the
ABS system as he's going to discourage pictures from making
the call because they are further away. We had Spencer
Arraghetty on yesterday. He talked about how he's not a
good judge. He thinks everything's a strike because he's biased.
So pitcher's not likely going to be used in an
ABS situation, and a lot of discussion about that is
it continue to try to figure out who's good and
who's not, which they will work on here during spring training.
Who to be trusted, who not to be trusted. Who's
gonna be the number one most trusted astro in terms
of judging the strikes on in years past, I would
have said Alex Bregman, there wouldn't have been down in
my mind we're talking about hitting wise. Uh, I'm going
to go with what Jordon Jordon's good. Jeremy Payne, he's
a paratis, but he's never gonna play. You don't know,
I don't say that. Now, I'm kidding. It's now somebody's
gonna go to Twitter Sports. However, he says, Parie's not
gonna play. That's that's terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible. Paradis works pitches,
He works the count very well. Uh, Paradis is the
best eye he just does. So we will go with him. Okay,
well else there, but we'll stick with the baseball news
of the day. It is the top sports news headline.
I would say overall, a sudden resignation from MLB Players
Association Executive Director Tony Clark. As we mentioned earlier today,
Matt normally around this time of year he goes to
various camps around the country, talks and meets with union
representatives and talks about the players Association and things coming
up in the next year, which we know there is
a looming possible lockout slash strike. Well, he has resigned today,
leaving the union without its leader less than a year
before the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement. According to
Jeff Passen and Don Van Natta Junior of ESPN, the
Eastern District of New York's ongoing investigations into the financing
and other dealings of the MLBPA is at fault. Here.
There is a company that the MLBPA is part owner
in called One Team Partners, and also Players Way that
are being investigated by the Eastern District Attorney of New
York in terms of improprieties done financially. So this seems
like an admission of guilt, right Tony Clark just resigning
out of nowhere. He was supposed to be with the
Cleveland Guardians. And what they do is this time of
year they go to every camp just kind of lay
of the land. Normally it's a nice kumbaya. How's everybody feeling?
Here's what we're working for. My guess is that whoever
takes over ultimately is going to be answering a lot
of questions about is this our last Spring training for
a while. And I guarantee you again if you're reading,
if you read the story from ESPN, they're going to
make the owners look like the bad guys. And that's
what typical union leadership does. If we're having a greed disagreement,
it's certainly not our fault. We're gonna say. The owners
are gonna say the players are greedy and the players
are gonna say the owners are greedy. That's how union
versus ownership works. I wonder if we're gonna get any
arbitration changes. And the truth is they're both greedy. Oh yeah,
and there's new television deals into play. The sport is
in good economic shape. It's not as good as say
football is, but nothing as good as a football. So yeah,
we are in a world where the Los Angeles Dodgers
are being crucified and they're like, you know what, we
have the money, but put a cap on ourselves so
other teams can can we can go to our to
the players and say, hey, we'd love to sign you,
but we have a hard cap. Bach So the baseball
gave us a cap. What can we do about it?
But say, we don't enough money for you. Meanwhile, they
can just outspend anybody at this point, and then you
get the Martins, you get the Reds, and you get
the Guardians that are spending at the bare bones levels.
All right, keeping it moving on the news at noon,
let's go to the NFL. Man. According to Adam Schefter,
the Seattle Seahawks are unlikely to use either a franchise
or transition tag on running back Kenneth Walker, the third
also known as the reigning Super Bowl MVP. Of course
it becomes relevant here in Houston, where they need some
help in the run game. Don't even start. Why not not,
that's not what Nicky c does. Oh well, he traded
from Joe Mixon. This would be a trade, This would
be a straight out. I know, this would be free.
But he traded and paid Joe Mixon. Joe Mixon wasn't
making a lot of money. We went and spent on
a running back there. I will, as I was teasing
our morning show Cole Thompson about it, I will not
even entertain the thought. Okay, you will not even entertain
the thought, because you're gonna get into ding war Ross
will Nick Cassario entertained the thought. Maybe I feel like,
even though he did is the reigning Super Bowl MVP.
He split carries with Zak Charbonnay throut the season. Charbonnay
of course, got hurt during the playoffs and not allowed
Kenneth Walker to tall as Walker because let's than twenty eight.
I think he's around twenty seven, twenty he's twenty five. Okay, well,
then that's really gonna put it out of the normal. No,
you let me tell you about Nicky S's gotta figure
out he's got to go get an RB one, but
he ain't gole pay RB one prices. Doesn't that tell you?
Speaker 4: That?
Speaker 2: Isn't that funny though, where the running back market is?
Because if he was so right, the Seattle Seahawks would
be paying. We're talking about the reigning Super Bowl MVP
one hundred yards in the game becoming a free agent.
We would not have been saying that twenty years ago,
maybe thirty years ago. No chance. Yeah, the Cowboys that
were not gonna let ms Smith go until he had
had gone way past his prime, which he did, and
then I think he had a thousand yards season with
Yers on it. But anyways, Uh, there you go. Uh
with the NFL news and a little bit more. This
is less news but an article put together with Matt
Bowen where he listed the top fifty NFL free agents
and projected landing spots for all of them. Oh, this
is interesting. I should say best team of fits. You
want to say his frap for the all of them?
We can talk about it after the break. I love
the Segway, my friend. That's what we call you. The
Segway King anything else or news? Really, we need to
pass on nothing piping on? All right, it's February, all right,
seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven
one three two one two five seventies. You're telling me
there is an NFL top fifty free agent list out there? Yes?
And are you going to tell me the Texans are
on the radar for some of these guys? Yes, oh
you are. That's why you want to listen. Next, it
is a Matt Thomas Show with Ross seven one three
two one two five is seven ninety seven one three
two one two five seven ninety twelve eighteen. We've got
more guests coming up between now and two o'clock today.
We'll also catch up again with Cam Smithfielder you missed
it earlier in the day, if you'd like to join
us to talk all things Houston sports, whether it be
about the Astros, whether it be about the lockout, whether
it be about the Rockets starting up their second half
of the year, although we're well past that point. That'll
be coming up on Thursday against Charlotte College Basketball. Cougar's
lost last night to Iowa State. I'm sad, I'm not devastated.
You should be sad, but not devastated. That's good. Nice test.
Now if they go for three, I'll be wigging out
a little bit. I can get losses out of the way. Well,
what if they're all by three point? You lost by
three points? Not they went up there and got shell
or you got destroyed. These are amazing conference games against
the super elite. Yes, and they We were listening again
really quickly to Joe Lenardie. Now he's not the end all,
but he has been the bracketologists long with anybody else,
ask more than any He says, as many as five
teams in the Big twelve could be top three seeds
in the four different regions. So five of the twelve
three and up, Wow, could be from one conference that
hasn't probably probably been surpassed since the heydays of the
ACC and probably the Big East when you think about
it now. They asked he had a bunch of teams too,
But yeah they did last year. Let's see, our good
friends at Ken Palm have Arizona the number three team,
Houston four, I always say seven, Kansas fifteen. So a
lot of great competition, and if you want to go
to that Arizona game on Saturday. Don't ask me for tickets.
I don't have any. And the secondary market quite robust.
And also Jake Myers won't shut up about Nebraska basketball.
He's got to be happy. Yeah, is it true they've
never wanted to tournament game? I know, I'm supposed to
know a lot of things. I don't know Nebraska basketball history.
They I thought I heard that, overheard that. I'll check
to you. The Braska cornutter's men basketball. Yeah, they've never won.
They've appeared in the tournament eight times. They have never
won a game ever. Ever, you see other schools have
it worse? See that? Yeah, it could be worse. All right.
You have a list of the top fifty free agents. Yes,
please attach Texans players to this survey. Well, I mean
that Texans players. I'm sorry, it was Texans land spots. Okay,
you have right now. Braden Smith, the offensive tackle to
New York Giants. This is from Matt Bowen of ESPN.
We like him listed as a perfect fit. He's talking
about best team fit for the free agents, okay, to
where they could be with the Houston Texas. So of
course he's talking about elevating the offensive line with CJ. Stroud.
We know Trent Brown is going to be a free agent.
Some people think the Texans are going to be able
to re sign Trent Brown. You know why not sure why?
Short contract, short contract, and we'll see how much money
he's going to command on the open market. But Braydon Smith,
the offensive tackle for the New York Giants, could be
a fit, okay for your Houston Texans. Braydon Smith, Yes,
offensive tackle, one of the He is the number ten
overall free agent. The number seven overall free agent is
not listed to the Houston Texas, but it's somebody whose
name has been mentioned a lot with the Houston Texans.
That would be Breece Hall. Matt Bowen lists the best
fit as the New York Jets, but the Texans possibly
being a team who could be in on that market.
You don't seem to think that there's going to be
a sort of free agent Oh will they Will they
lob one to Breeze Hall for sure? Yeah, come on
in site down, Joey, Oh the man himself, he's back.
All right, we will continue this NFL. Who's your NFL team?
By the way, Joe the Eagles, big Eagles fan. Okay,
like how big? Like would you party hard when they
won the Super Bowl? Cook a couple of years ago?
Oh yeah, I did you go up a light pole.
Speaker 8: I've sent emails to them about like guys, I've watched
in the combine and you know, a minute a minute.
Speaker 2: I did not expect that kind of answer from you. Yeah,
oh yeah, I love it. I love it.
Speaker 8: So they respond back to you, No, but they've taken
the year they took DeVante Smith and Landon Dickerson.
Speaker 2: I mean those are my two player so was my
round one and two stack? Howie Roseman's ripping you off
your picks. How he's one of the best, if not
the best, GM in the league. Uh.
Speaker 8: The way he manages the cap is is special year
in and year out, and he'll he'll keep as long
as he's there, they'll be competitive.
Speaker 2: How much credit do you receive we're a talking baseball
for getting Saquon Barkley away from.
Speaker 8: The Giants me personally, Yes, they're you. How big of
a responsibility? He wasn't really on my radar?
Speaker 2: Uh? So you know none? Yeah? None, none. Okay, let
me tell you some about else. It'd be better if
you lied to us, all right, It was all me,
I personally regret. Now we're gonna clip that, We're gonna
put it on all our social media. Yeah, this this
kind of works. It went viral just write five seconds ago.
I mean you watch him run and man, it's special.
Thanks down here a little bit, a little bit, the
whole team down here for him is my fantasy thousand yards.
I mean yeah, it's down here for my fantasy team.
All right, thanks, all right, Hey, welcome back to Houston
or West Palm Beach. Thank you. Where were you when
you got the phone call? Uh? My girlfriend and I
were were getting ready for bed.
Speaker 8: I just brushed my teeth and I had a miscall
and a text from Toronto's GM that said, hey, give
me a call when you when you see this, And
I said, oh, I think we got traded somewhere.
Speaker 2: Is that what the first thing he thought was trade? Uh?
Yeah absolutely. It was like ten thirty at night. Yeah,
he's not calling to say how is dinner? Yeah, that's crazy.
So when you got the phone call, did you have
any and it was Houston or any any rumors, any
anything at all? At this point?
Speaker 8: I mean you always you know, we've crowded outfield over there.
Speaker 2: A lot of really good players.
Speaker 8: I thought if something was going to happen this year,
it would probably happen, you know, around the winter meetings
or in the winner in the off season. And that
didn't happen, So I mean, it's always a possibility. I
wasn't expected at ten thirty that night, but I put
it on speakerphone and he said, hey, we you know,
we made a trade with And I was kind of waiting,
like where, where where?
Speaker 2: And he said with Houston.
Speaker 8: And I just looked at my girlfriend Faith and I
was just like, oh my gosh, what was her reaction?
She was shocked obviously the trade, she's surprising, but just
the fact that it was back here, obviously, and you know,
such a familiar place that I had already came from.
I think that was like the big shock factor for us.
So we were excited.
Speaker 2: And where do you live in the off season? Philadelphia? Okay?
So okay, so you get that. And do you know
that people in this town lost their mind when you
got traded a little bit?
Speaker 8: I mean I I definitely wasn't expecting that move. When
it happened, I felt like, I mean, like this was
this organization was all I ever knew, you know, through
the miners, sure, through the major leagues, and I feel
like your rookie year is you know a little bit
of a whirlwind of you know, getting acclimated to major
leagues and there's just so much going on that, you know,
an added trade into that and some added change of
you know, where you're living and what country you're in
and all that. Yes, it was a lot, and so
I don't know I wasn't as keyed into maybe how
much the fans were upset when I got traded, as
I was trying to reacclimate more to you know, Toronto
and my new home.
Speaker 2: Well, I just let you know, there's more Tim Horton's
popping up in Houston all over the place because you
can't go five feet with us sinking Tim Horton. You
don't have to worry about the exchange rate anymore, either
has much. Yeah, well the dollar is stronger. Let me
tell you it's great. I go there once year and
it's amazing. Yeah. You buy like a Starbucks coffee and
you're like, wow, I only got charged, you know, a
dollars seventy five. Like I get two donuts and a
large coffee and a Tim Hortons. Okay, and it's like
three hours and nine cents. It's not bad, not bad
at all. Well, welcome back. So Bina gets on the
phone with you, Joe, I'm assuming at some point does
as well. What would they tell you? What was the
message for them when the move was made?
Speaker 8: They were just excited. They both you know, emphasized how
hard it was when that trade happened and how excited
they were to have you back. You know, I mean
this organization is prides itself on winning and is going
to continue to do that. So from a player, I mean,
you're in a first class organization that you know, you
once knew as your home, and you know, people are
motivated there to win and to go acquire players that
they think can do that.
Speaker 2: So I think to be to be back.
Speaker 8: In the mix here and to be playing in the
outfield all three spots, they just both were, you know,
really excited and expressed that over the phone.
Speaker 2: What's that been like you? As I mean, you're obviously
been very very exposed to the this is a business
side of baseball. Somebody wants you want to go out there,
you want to do your best, You want to be
out there on the field, But then there's that aspect
of it.
Speaker 8: Yeah, absolutely, And I definitely think, you know, now this
being the second time that I got traded, I think,
you know, I wasn't as emotional like outwardly as I
was just thankful to, you know, have gotten the chance
to play in Toronto and also be thankful and grateful
to come back to a place that treated me so
well citywise and fan base wise when I was here
in Houston. So yeah, I mean, if you're gonna get
traded multiple times, if it's only between two teams, and
it's funny, the transitions only get smoother and smoother.
Speaker 2: So a little bittersweet your season up there, I mean,
obviously in the middle of Penechase, I know you probably
didn't play as much as you probably wanted to, But
just the being around the aura of a team that
was ascending up the American League.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, it's a lot of fun. I could
see why people talked about postseason runs like that when
I was coming up in the miners here in Houston,
and talked about how special they were and how much
they brought the team together and how you could build
off that momentum the following season, so I'd always heard
about them, and the chance to be be in the
mix for one was awesome and uh, you know, lifelong
memories and a big part of the reason why I
wanted to play this game as a little kid. So
I think the chance to be here and have that
experience in Houston is you know, it's everything I've ever wanted.
Speaker 2: So when things settled down a little bit and you
said you're coming to westboll because you weren't done even
originally for a few days, right, Yeah, what was that
drive like? Were you like, Okay, I'm going back to
a familiar place. They need me for a reason, and
let's face it, outfield depth could use some depth and
you're in a spot where you can grab one of
those spots. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 8: Have you guys ever had a long drive and you're
just like, you know what, I might as well make
some phone calls and you catch up with a handful
of people.
Speaker 2: So who you call?
Speaker 8: Well, we were just getting a ton of calls and
people just excited about the trade and my yeah, everybody.
We we just talked to so many people and you know,
guys I'd played with here just to till we got
the more we drove, the more excited we got about it,
and you know, the more it seemed like a really
good opportunity to do.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and then I showed up and I was like, wow,
I feel like we picked up right where we left off.
I was joking that I studied abroad and I'm back. Yeah,
so you're back home. What is that like for you,
especially as you're just.
Speaker 2: Trying to improve and get better?
Speaker 4: Are you?
Speaker 2: What are things you're working on, things you're trying to
do to be at your best come spring training. Yeah.
Speaker 8: I think offensively, you know, build on some of the
swing stuff that I was doing last year. And you know,
I've always kind of made little tweaks and adjustments along
the way. I think you're always working as hitters to
just continue to refine things. But I'm excited. I think defensively,
the astros here really keyed in on some little tweaks
the you know, kind of the setup in the outfield
and you know, your first step, your primer step to
be able to really boost your reaction time. So I
know Jason Bell, he was funny enough, and I said
this to him today. He was hands on with me
and my draft class and twenty twenty one in the
summer when we all came down here, yeah, on field
one over there, and.
Speaker 2: We were there today working.
Speaker 8: I was like, Jay Bell, this is exactly where we
were as soon as I got drafted, you know, years
and years ago. So excited to kind of improve that
defense stuff in the outfield.
Speaker 2: Without getting in particulars, because some things are should be kept.
But are there some things the Astros did? You're like
when you got to Toronto and like, man, I kind
of like the way we used to do it, and
then there are something to do something you learn maybe
in Toronto that said, you know what, I like how
they strategize things. I mean, no two teams in baseball
run their camps the same, run their workouts, run their
days off. Was it interesting to you to see how
a different perspective for at least a little while. I
think so.
Speaker 8: I think every organization is going to do things a
little bit differently. I think at the end of the
day of the game is still the game. But I
definitely think that you know, there's a reason that these
two teams have had success in the past and it
will continue to have success. I think both organizations do
things the right way I think both are you know,
first class organizations that fill the rooms and fill the
staff rooms and the player rooms in the clubhouses.
Speaker 2: With great people.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and when you do that and you work hard,
good things typically happen. So you put the right players
in the room, you put the right staff around them,
you know, top to bottom nutritionists, trainers, everything you know,
you tend to get, tend to get good things. A
couple more minutes here with Joey lit Perfido. How's George
Springer doing these days? He's awesome. He getting to play
with George. He was, you know, one of the first
faces I met in that clubhouse. It's been awesome to
play with him and get to know him. I've talked
to him. He was one of my first calls when
I got the news. But yeah, I mean he I
feel like he took me under his wing from you know,
the first day I got there.
Speaker 2: And I'll be friends with George for life. He's He's
the man. George had to bounce back season. There was
a lot of talk about coach Popkins up there and
Popkins is that correct uh in in Toronto? As far
as swing speed and stuff like that, and what has
it been like for you. I guess working with those
guys being here in Houston, things change and then you
come back and there's also new hitting coaches. Just I
guess if you can get for a little insight to
what kind of things working on or how different or
how so some more philosophies are especially organizational.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I think, you know, when I got to Toronto,
some of the adjustments that I made and made through
last year were really just in my setup and trying
to put myself in a spot that was comfortable in
the box, in my setup and that you know, really
just allowed me to be athletic in the batter's box.
I think when I was in Houston my rookie year,
I was kind of fighting myself almost to get into
these positions that I thought would help me.
Speaker 2: And I think while I was in Toronto, I learned that.
Speaker 8: You know, I don't really need to fight my body
or fight the way that it moves to be able
to get in good spots to hit. So that's kind
of been what I've voiced since I got back here,
and you know what we're going to continue to build on.
But if you look at like a picture of my
setup in the batter's box my rookie year in Houston
versus what it was, you know, the second half of
last year in Toronto. Yep, I think the second half
last year just looks like more relaxed. I'm a little
bit more upright and just a little bit more balanced.
So just building on that.
Speaker 2: Will you missed the constant runs through the customers department
of the airport.
Speaker 8: They made it easy, no, I mean, uh, it was
really just you know, an extra ten to fifteen minutes.
But no, I mean I didn't mind it too bad.
I enjoyed playing up there. It was close to home.
I definitely mix miss Topo Chico's really, Yeah, shouldn't get
those up there? Well, they're just not as popular. I mean,
like if you're getting gas, they're not like the glass
bottles not in the gas station.
Speaker 2: How's that place called pizza Pizza? We we always see the
ads behind your own.
Speaker 8: I've never had it, really, but I'm gonna get some
Shipley Donuts as soon as I get back.
Speaker 2: Oh, there you go.
Speaker 8: They don't even sponsor me, but I love it. Don't
sponsor just give a free plug?
Speaker 6: Not yet?
Speaker 2: Yeah, some original glaze.
Speaker 8: Yes, I'm trying to think what I got some of
my favorite coffee shops in Houston, so.
Speaker 2: I can't go wrong with an apple fretter. Who was
the first astro to call you? The first astro other
than our general manager manager? Uh.
Speaker 8: I think Jake Myers might have been one of the
first few texts. Jake texted me. I'm trying to think
who was Hunter Brown?
Speaker 2: And it wasn't about haircare tips.
Speaker 8: It was just no, I wasn't really supposed to tell
people Thursday night, but I texted Hunter Brown the song
Choosing Texas by Ella Langley, just like a screenshot of it,
like just like a hint.
Speaker 2: And he didn't he was asleep and woke up the
next word. But yeahs like do you want to mean
somewhere for a concert or something? Happy to be back
and good to talk to you guys. Okay, well, thank
you very much coming by again. I don't I think
it took us two weeks for people to get over
the saturate as you're getting traded because you had such
a remarkable start as an astroid fan favorite, So nilas,
I'm gonna be safe in saying an opening day, you'll
be probably getting one of the top five ovasions because
people didn't mission. So I'm excited.
Speaker 8: It feels good and it definitely makes my family feel
good to, you know, get that excitement and feel it
around the fan base.
Speaker 2: For sorry, are you a Sixers fan.
Speaker 8: I'm more of a duke bath when it comes to basketball.
I don't follow the NBA is tight. I'm look more
duke basketball.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Cameron Booser has been fantastic.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I want him to get it done this year.
I think Houston's got a pretty good team. It'd be
fun if they had a rematch in in the tournament
at some point.
Speaker 2: I don't think so Houston should have went probably seven, eight, nine,
ten points, somewhere in that range. I will let you guys, Yeah,
we'll let it go there. Get in there. Joey, Thanks,
thank you, congratulations. We appreciate Joey Little Prafido back with
us in Houston with the Astros here on Sports Talk
seven ninety. Thanks again to Joey Little Perfido for stopping
by it for a few minutes. You know, it's funny.
Everybody has the cult hero. Every team has one. Every
team UH has to get rid of one, and it
causes great angst. Neils will say that I mean, if
you went back and looked at the timeline ross of
Joey little Praffito got traded for you Sake Kakuchi, it
was this organization is ruined for the rest of their lives.
This is a mid level picture with Kakuchi is giving
up a lot of home runs. You'll bringing him to
dink In Park where he's gonna give a bunch of
home runs up. And frankly, you se Kakuci, that was
a good trade. He absolutely was needed when the team
was in need of starting pitching, and he absolutely performed expectations. Now,
my guess is they didn't think he was going to
sign a long term He went and got a big
sweet deal with the Angels and he's now their opening
day starter apparently for the Angels, which is weird to say,
but you know what, good for him. Wishing him the best, Yeah,
that's fine, except when he plays the Astros. Yeah, all
because the area of eleven when he plays the Astros,
it is twelve thirty nine. Here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
If you want to chime in and say hello, if
you think you want to get two seven one three
two one two five seven nine zero seven one three two, one, two, five, seven,
and we'll get some more baseball chatter, but real quickly,
it's from the run through the rest of that list again,
anybody else that the textan should keep on the radar
that according to this Matt Bowen list we were talking
about Breese Hall, right, did and see Kenneth Walker on
this list? And I don't know if they when they
made it, they were soon they were presuming he was
going to stay in Seattley tag or something like that, right,
But I think maybe maybe not the headliners of the
running back class, but the other guys could be some
some that the Houston Texans might be keeping an eye on.
I mean, it feels like to me, and you tell me,
I'm going off only history alone.
Speaker 7: In this.
Speaker 2: Casario will sign his guys that he drafted, he loves
and wants to be featured a long term deals that's
in his DNA. The rest of it is signing guys
on a one and two year contracts, maybe a little
longer in the tooth, maybe have been around a few
more places, but the joke makes him trade worked for
a while. It certainly did so. Actually, Ken Walker is
on this list, He's not listened as a tie with
the Texans, but he's listed as the eighteenth best free agent.
Travis eighteen is a running back Javonte Williams, who had
a good bounce back season with the Dallas Cowboys, also
a free agent. Now here's the thing that we don't
that you and I have just a friend of the show, rico'dowell.
He loves the show. Here's the thing. I'm thinking you
and I believe that Woody Marx is not a three
down back, correct. We don't know if the Texans believe that. Correct?
And could the Texans go we can't fix everything, So
let's give this running back who we'd like the best
possible holes to run in, and maybe Woody Marx takes
that progression. I don't think that's it. And again, no
one in the Texans organization has alluded to whether they
think he's amazing or he's just a guy on a roster.
They would never admit that because they liked what he
did as a rookie. But we've said this before. You
can't fix everything in one offseason. It's impossible to get
an RB one, another receiver, one or two offensive lineman,
maybe some additional depth in the secondary that seems like
a lot of work to get fixed in a very
short period of time. There's a couple interesting things on
Woody Marks. One thing that I will say I am
very guilty of is seeing a player not have good
season and then writing them off. I think if you
looked at Nico Collins rookie year, you'd be like, ah,
he's just a guy, and then Nico Collins became one
of the best wide receivers and football running back is
a little bit different, but there can be growth, there
can be improvement from year to year. Another thing is
that also we can sometimes be overlooked, is that who
knows what Woody Marx was dealing with throughout the season.
He went to the blue medical tent like every week, right,
he was always dealing with concussions and shoulder and knee
and ankle. So maybe I could you could maybe sell
me that textans say, hey, we get a fully healthy
Woody Marks next year, with a year of action under
his belt, he's going to be better than he was
as a rookie. Now see, I am an NFL and
Texans insider. I'm not an NFL analyst. Okay, there's a difference.
An evaluator but my untrained eyes tell me he's just
a guy. If you look at yeah, well you're the
advanced tats tell you that too. There's a lot of force,
miss tackles per attempt, yards after contact per attempt. There's
a ton of running back metrics out there, and what
he marks is bottom third or worse than just about
all of them. But that could also tie into what
I'm talking about as far as the injuries and the
lack of being one hundred percent healthy. Now, of course
running backs by the end of every season aren't one
hundred percent healthy, but were there some nagging injuries that
he was dealing with bumps and bruises along the way
that he can be better next year with a full
off season of getting stronger and getting better and having
a better handle on Nick Kayley's offense. It feels like
to me, when you talk about running backs, I'm not predicted.
It's easier to project greater greatness, if that makes any
sense to you. Like when Damian Pierce had a rookie
breakout season, right you kept saying, man, this guy is
going to take it to the next level as compared
to Woody Marx who had a nice campaign, but there
was nothing that I saw in him that made me think, man,
you give him an all star, an all pro left
guard opens up bigger holes and this guy is going
to be bursting ten eleven twelve yards a run. That
to me was never something I saw on Woody and
hopefully in the Texans, if they don't spend big money
on free agency on running backs, they've got to be
thinking that because I don't think you can trust Nick
Chubb anybody else behind him. What is it, h goomble Wale?
Is that right?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I guess, Jordan. I mean, I just come on. And
that's a hard thing, is that if you are in
need of an RB one, you can't go on the
cheap on that unless you make a savvy move, in
which the Texans did that Joe Mixon for a draft
pick change was very savvy. And it's gonna be up
to Nick to find if he's going to go that
route again and not try to overpay in the free
agency market. He's gonna have to find he's got to
do a similar type move. I'll give you the a
different case, but kind of what we're talking about here.
You're a good friend, Ashton Genty. He finished with nine
hundred and seventy five yards by the way, twenty five
short of one thousand. But his yards per carry terrible.
So if you're just a box score watcher, you're like,
Ashton Genty wasn't very good, But there are those metrics
talking about yards after a contact. He was basically with
that horrible offensive line. He was getting hit average like
two yards behind the line. So his forcemiths, tackles and
all those things would give a person hope to say, hey,
maybe this can work out.
Speaker 11: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, honestly, even though I teased about the Genty thing,
I mean he's obviously going. I think there is an uptick.
He was a first round pick, yes, for a reason,
because the NFL scouts, and it wasn't just the Raiders
had chosen him. There were other teams that would have
taken Asher Genty in the first round. Wood Marx was
never considered a first or second round running bro. You
can look at those peripherals as they call him, and say, hey,
the Genty does these things. He makes people miss, he
breaks tackles, he gets yards after contact. Woody Marx doesn't
do those things. So that's why we should keep an
ear on the Breshall conversations. Because Breeshall is a many
ready made running back. My guess is he's probably not
looking for a super long term dealer for that matter,
would be offered by other teams. But if you're Breese Hall,
you're probably going for the cash ground knowing and I
would think running back more than any other position today
in sports, Ross has to go for the biggest dollars
because the shelf life of being an RB one is
so limited.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but everybody knows that said raining Super Bowl MVP
is been getting let go and they're not even thinking
about it. Yeah, that is weird, all right. It is
twelve forty six, It's Madden Ross. We are with you
today until two pm. If you want to join us,
you may do so at seven one three two one
two five seven ninety seven one three two one two
five seven nine zero added. Ross with you from West
Paul Beach, where I still expect to be joined by
Christian Walker in the next hour of the show. We'll
also hear from the astros Cam Smith. We talked with
him earlier this morning. We'll let you hear a little
bit of that as well. James with us on seven
ninety at twelve fifty three, James, what do you have?
Speaker 3: Thank you Matt for setting my call.
Speaker 2: Sure you have an awesome.
Speaker 3: Sill, you have awesome show. Uh.
Speaker 2: This is not directed to.
Speaker 3: You, Uh, none of the This is the right to
to the uh majority owner of the Astros, Jim Crank.
You cannot let your third baseman superstar walk and the
expect to make the playoffs. You cannot.
Speaker 2: You cannot.
Speaker 3: You cannot expect your right fielder superstar, trade him and
expect to make the playoffs.
Speaker 2: Who's that? Who's the right? Who's the right?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 2: James, Hold on, James.
Speaker 3: I'm talking about Tucker.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, James, they were. They were one game out
of the playoffs. I mean the last year.
Speaker 3: I understand that.
Speaker 2: I understand that.
Speaker 3: Man, I understand that. We we understand that.
Speaker 2: It don't matter.
Speaker 3: You can't put up one game, Okay, I don't care
if they had Carlos Correa, Gary Cole, it wasn't gonna meet.
You can't take you cannot take your third baseman superstar.
You can't take your right field a superstar. Both gold Glovers,
both high in the top five in their position, and
expect you to make postseason. Let me tell you this hit,
mister crane, you will not with your fists being tight,
you will not your your your organization will not make
a playoffs. Remember the owners get the owners get one
of the game past postseason. When he when he realized
he's not getting no more postseason revenue, maybe he'll loosen up,
but it be too late because I thought he had
a gauntlet on the league as far as he had
the best playoffs and he let them walk.
Speaker 2: And guess what he did. Listen to me, James, James,
guess what he did. His team went to the playoffs
year after year after year and they were never top
five and salary during any part of that time. Isn't
that crazy? So why do you why do you naturally
assume that because you spend money on somebody that's going
to guarantee success. The New York Match would like to
argue with you about that. Okay, stand the way of that.
Speaker 3: Let me ask you this here. Let me ask you
this here. Other teams paid millions to be better than
the Astros?
Speaker 2: Is that wrong? Right? They are either tenth or eleventh
in depending on what.
Speaker 3: Other teams paid millions to be better than the Astros.
So what I'm saying, is the Astro.
Speaker 2: But paying players does not guarantee success. You must pay
the right players. That's what you're saying. Okay, you basically,
if someone's listening to you right now, James, someone's listening
to you, James. They're saying, well, if James is telling me,
if the Astro has been more than anybody else, then
they're gonna win more games. And that is that is
not an if then statement. There's not an accurate if
then statement. It's just not.
Speaker 3: Well. The Astros with Tucker Brigman Correll, Uh, those guys
guaranteed the Astros gonna be in the postseason. Every year
we're praying for the merrit were praying for World Series trophy?
What what is we praying for If we ain't praying
for the World Series troper, what are.
Speaker 2: We praying for? We're playing to make the playoffs and
the Astros are considered to be a playoff contender yet
again this year, even with.
Speaker 3: Team we guarantee World Series trophy.
Speaker 2: Will we got news for you. Five years ago, they
weren't guaranteed to make the World Series. What why are you?
Why are you assuming that just because those guys were there,
they lost an American League to Championship series to the
Texas Rangers. They lost an American League Championship Series to
the Boston Red Sox. What are you talking to? This
is the Astros made World Series runs, of course and
been win there, but they didn't go every single year.
Why do you Why are you assuming.
Speaker 3: That no to Ashrols, knowing that period, Ashs the greatest team,
the greatest baseball team in the history of Major League Baseball.
Speaker 2: If I don't okay Moking bes.
Speaker 3: In, Moking bed is nobody in the in the stand,
nobody in the stadium. Mook and Bets couldn't have never
talked that ball. Don't want that whole day two Bay
hit that that was. That was blatant. I don't know
why major League Baseball let that stand.
Speaker 2: No ways, Joe West hates the Astros. James are gonna
let you rumber Man because that I'm exhausted. Thank you, James.
Always a pleasure to hear from you. I don't normally no,
of course it is James loves a show.
Speaker 1: Is the mac Thomas Show with Ross.
Speaker 2: He's Matten Ross with a final hour. Here from West
Palm Beach. We are making a little bit of a
pivot here on the show. Christian Walker, we has asked
to push his appearance to tomorrow with and so we
will play an emergency meeting of the Jake Myers fan club.
Didn't feel like an emergency. Can we can we build
some drama as long as he's still on the team.
I guess it's not an emergency. That's true, So, uh,
the h It'll be a short meeting. It's only four minutes,
so it'll work. Is brief. It was a brief, but
it got to the point. So we'll hear from Jake
Myers this half hour, and then in the next half
hour towards the end of the show, we'll hear from
Cam Smith. So that's what we got going here for
the hours, and then we'll move Christian to tomorrow. We
will also have Danni Brown tomorrow and we don't know
what else canna be after that, so surprises. Great astros talk, yeah,
great Houston Sports Talk, Yeah, the best in town. That's
what we're here for. Here's weekdays at ten o'clock until
two on Sports Talk seven ninety seven one three two,
one two five seven ninety is how you reach the
show if you want to get in. That's seven one
three two, one two five seven NINTI. Let's go to
Michael to open up the show at one oh five. Michael,
good afternoon. What's on your mind?
Speaker 5: Hey guys, that's awesome. You guys are out there in
West Palm Beach.
Speaker 3: Very cool.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I just wanted to call in. I was one
of the few guys that was right on CJ. Shroud.
I had called in after the first season, his rookie season,
and I was like, yeah, it's a new offense, new coach.
You know, he's gonna get figured out. And I said
he was gonna call he's gonna go for double interceptions.
Speaker 2: He did.
Speaker 5: And then I called in a in after at the
beginning before this season, and I said that, yeah, this
is just who he is. Yeah, I think the fans
are going to realize that this is who you're getting
c J. Stroud, And yeah, I do think the team
should move on from him. I didn't see those trade
rumors that Fitzpatrick floated. I thought that was not a
bad idea. I think I could win with a much
cheaper quarterback.
Speaker 2: Tom mcsha who's Fitzpatrick Fitzpatrick, Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Speaker 5: I thought it was Ryan Fitzpatrick says.
Speaker 2: He said something about it. It could have been out
there for sure. But the latest one to see this
is uh yeah, Todd McShay. Well, I mean, I don't
remember your call, and Michael, thank you for listening. Will
if you got an as he's called in to brag,
I remember him a little bit. Oh, Michael, are you
a bragger in general? Are? Yeah?
Speaker 5: It was a gut feeling, man, I got to correct,
That's what I was calling.
Speaker 2: So let me ask you this. When you called a
couple of years ago and you said what you said,
did we go you're high in the night or we
think we think it was some were there some validity
to it? Oh?
Speaker 5: You guys kind of laughed at me. You are like,
oh no, back then, y'all are still seeking to tune.
He was top five, you know, it was Joe Barrow,
Josh Allen and who else.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 5: He was top five in the AFC. And I was like, man,
he's got Nico Collins, you know, a new a new
offensive coordinator. There's no film on this guy. That's all
I said. But you know I did, I did eat
my words though. I said, you guys are gonna win
a lot of games this year, and y'all, y'all killed it.
So that's why I do think if you'll had like
a little bit better quarterback, you'll be right there for sure.
Speaker 2: Who's now. The other thing was, go ahead, before you
go any further, who is your team? By the way,
I'm curious.
Speaker 5: Oh, I'm a big Cowboys fan.
Speaker 2: That's what I remember. Yeah, I remember you.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I'm a big fan.
Speaker 2: So let's putspective. Let's put it all that. We're gonna
give you time, don't worry. So let's say you're listening
to this show right now, and you're and okay, and
you hear somebody call in and say, told y'all C J.
Stroud won and all that in the back of Gee
Ups told you y'all And the interviewer meaning me and
you Ross went to him and said, who is y'all?
And you said, well, I'm a Cowboys fan. How do
you think the city of Houston feels about you right
this exact moment, Michael.
Speaker 5: Hey, they probably don't like it too much. Probably not,
But you know, I think Dak Prescott's not the problem
with our team, you know, I think it's our ownership.
Probably that's probably most likely.
Speaker 2: It defense, I would say, maybe not putting together a
professional defense for I don't know, four or five years.
Speaker 5: Yeah, no, it's a defense. We're all we're all heavy,
heavy payroll on the offensive side. But we can make
some move then. I'm looking forward to this offseason. I
think we're gonna we got we got a new defensive coordinator.
We brought him, some new coaches. I think a couple
of the free agents from Philly are going to follow.
That said, that's been the rumors right now, so we
can get like two of those guys pick up those
two picks that we have in the first round. But
we could be back. But again, I'm not that guy.
I'm not gonna be like, hey, this is our year.
I'm definitely not that guy. I'm very real. You know
we are until Jerry Jones, you know, he's gone, We're
probably going to be floating in this purgatory for a while.
Speaker 2: I got you, all right, do you have a baseball
thought before I let you go?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 6: I did.
Speaker 5: I was gonna say, I think it's obviously you know
why we're keeping Ezoc. I think you know, you look
at last year, you know dubond he was that plug
and play. And I think a big complaint we had was, hey,
this guy's playing too much. You know, his bat is
not there to be playing like every day like that.
So I think, you know, you know, Ezoc for at least,
you know, before the trade deadline, maybe he's going to
be that plug and play. But you know, what is
the likelihood that you know, A'ltuve, Walker, Corey, maybe even Pina,
you know, stay healthy the whole year. So if a
guy goes down, you know you do have a guy
that can plug and play. You know, maybe he doesn't
play short, but you can, you know, move cray over.
But you know you have a guy. And but he
could also be a big bargaining chip to a seller
at the trade deadline. So I think that's why we're
keeping him.
Speaker 2: Too, I think. And thank you for the phone call, Michael.
I'm going to tell you I feel someone educated in
telling you this. They don't want to wait to the
trade deadline. They're keeping him right now because they're not
finding the right deal. They don't want to load it
for what they don't think it's fair value. If they
felt like they were getting fair value from someone that
he would be gone. The team that were negotiating with
the heaviest, the Red Sox went in another direction and
made a trade for a third basement. So that's why
he's here. If in all likelihood, if they could have
it perfectly, the logjam would be clear by now. Yeah,
by not. I don't think Dana's putting his cell phone
down and saying, hey, get back to me July first.
I think if he could leave camp with a deal,
then he would do it. So while there is no
firm deadline except that July thirty first or August first
trade deadline, I think it's a very very fluid situation.
So I would say safely, if you're an Estock Parties fan,
I would not buy an estoc Party's jersey at any
point this year. Oh can I still cancel that? Did
you get an authentic one or like a replica? Really
dance a lot? Yeah? And and Michael, we love you
and you always feel free to call. But I remember
is the phone call was going along, I'm like, I
think this guy's a cowboy fan. Yeah, course, And it
sounded like because here's what you don't want. And look,
I'm not a Texans fan. Ross is, yes, but I
sure as hell don't want to hear about what my
what's wrong with my team? When your team is a
bunch of douce nozzles too, well, that doesn't Frankly, the
Texans are a better football team than the Cowboys. Are
they just are? Yes, they are right. Dak Prescott will
not have fun against the Texan defense next year when
they play each other at Energy stadiums. Well, they have
to get there. Well, Dak Prescott is a better quarterback
than CJ. Stroud right now though that is in and
even close. Dak is an elite quarterback. I'm sorry, he
just is this Uh. CJ's troud stocks it's ever been
since maybe literally his first game of his career, because
after that things started looking a little bit better than
he the world on fire. Ye last two years ago happened,
and then last year and then the absolute disaster that
was the playoffs. This is as low as his stock
has been, so I'm hoping it rebounds, and if it does,
I want to hear from Michael as battle red Ross.
I want to hear from Michael when CJ. Stroud has
this bounce back, you are the battle red So Michael,
we want to hear from you once more than every
other year. Please please please bounce back CJ. You know
if he doesn't, you know what's gonna happen. They're gonn
to trust somebody. Yep. They're gonna be lost for years. Yep,
you're gonna waste the prime. You're gonna waste Will Anderson
and to Neil Hunter, Dni Hunter's gonna have to be
gone at some point, that's Correctamarin Last is gonna have
to get paid. Correct, Seeing might want he got paid,
but a couple of years he's gonna want more money. Well,
you're gonna be be renegotiating camp Bullock. Is I mean
he is gonna be a guy who can talk about
getting paid. Jalen Petrie did get paid. You're not keeping
toe of toe and you're not keeping al Shire. There's
guys leaving, there's guys leaving. This is the next this
next year must win year. Well, it is for Nick
Asio AFC championship or he'll be looking for work. Some
say it is so the Texas Insider for a reason.
You are you need a new stadium, You want Torol
Town full of restaurants. You need some hope. Okay, and
another AFC divisional loss ain't gonna bring the hope when
you're trying to open up a Reinnigans or a Booby
News Days. I'm assuming there was the kind of chains
out there, right or do you go with the mes
Caake macquarie, It's uh, it could be one of those.
There could be a mar movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's
gonna be like sugar Land Town Center. That place is popping.
Oh yeah yeah, way Woodlands Market Street here and there.
Market Street is pretty good, Thomas Thomas. Women love the
Market Street. I'm sure they do a lot. Did jewelry
store over there? Oh yeah? How does the how does
the Thomas credit card feel about Market Street? So here's
the biggest cameraal fast and then we're gonna hear from
Jake Myers. Uh so there is a place Kendra Scott. Yes,
that allows you to get a discount in your birthday month. Okay,
and if you tag your husband along you get the
discount too. So every June Kim says, hey, let's go
up dinner in the Woodlands. Is her birthday in June
as well? Mine? I know yours is, but I was
gonna say her soon HER's in October? Okay, So you'll
go June and October, em bare minimum, Colley's in November,
Cameron's in June, Peyton's January. So the Thomas boys have
to go to the Woodlands at least a half three
or four times a year, and we have to slither
into Kendra Scott. We have no interest in being in there. Yeah,
because our IDs get our get the wives and the
daughter's discounts. It's a scam, sounds like it. I don't
bring them to Rick's Roaring Roods and get forty percent
off of gear. Yeah, or bally Rouse or Rix Cabaret.
For what. You can't get a discount of Ricks Cabaret.
You can't. You can't give him a coupon. You get
a birthday dance. So you're saying, if I show my
daughter's ID, I get enough free dance. Oh your wife,
Oh I won't you explain that to her? I will, Honey,
if you come with me, I get a free dance.
It's a family trip. No, it's a husband it's date nights. Beautiful,
all right. A meeting of the president's and the vice
am I the vice president of the fan club. I
just remember, I don't know are you a member? I
think sometimes it felt provisional a few times. I don't know.
We'll hear from Jake Myers next. Our time is one fifteen.
It's a Matt Thomas old Ross here from West Palm
Beach on seven ninety the annual meeting of the Jake
Myers Fan Club. This is like the stock session where
all the Stike stakeholders come into play. Here and we've
got ROSSI President. I'm Matt, Jake. How are you. This
has been an interesting time because the Hots League wasn't
really hot, but it was simmering for a while, right,
mm hmm.
Speaker 7: Yeah, No, I'm doing well. Yeah, I'm excited to be
back and excited to be talking.
Speaker 2: To you guys. Yeah. Did you spend a lot of
time hearing your name search on Twitter? I mean, I
know guys are not supposed to do that, but everybody's human, right, Yeah,
everybody is human. It was more so the people around
me that were kind of talking to me about it. Yeah,
it was.
Speaker 7: It was a crazy time, but I'm really excited to
be back and be a part of this awesome team.
Speaker 2: Did you have any sort of sincere conversations with the
team about what was happening and what you should believe
in what you shouldn't believe. Uh No, but it's business.
Speaker 7: I mean, they're they're trying to do what what they
feel to make the best team they can and it
has a lot more to do than with me as
a person, And so I don't take it personally. It's
it's about business and making the team better.
Speaker 2: But I'm really.
Speaker 7: Glad that, you know, they they chose to bring me
back and uh that I can be a part of
you know, the astrosk because you know, I really enjoy
being here.
Speaker 2: And people always talk about when your name comes up
in trades, that means, yes, you might be going away,
but that also means if you have some value. Is
that a way you kind of try to look at
it as like, hey, that means if my name's coming up,
then I'm doing something right. That means other teams are
valuing what I bring to up the tape. Absolutely. Absolutely, Yeah,
I think that's a huge part of it. It does.
Speaker 7: It does give you that, you know, sense of value.
It is very interesting though, because as a player, you
do you know, you know, the grass is not always greener.
I try to tell myself that, you know, I really
enjoy being here. I know a lot of people here.
I've learned a lot of things from the coaches, and
so I just really appreciate that, and I really appreciate
being here.
Speaker 2: Your lockermate here is going to have an opportunity to
win that left field spot. What advice have you given
him so far?
Speaker 7: I just try to I just try to to slow
him down a little bit, because I know I've been
and his situation before, and so I just try to
slow him down and make sure he's.
Speaker 2: Having fun because he works.
Speaker 7: He's a work you know, he's he's a dude who works,
and so it'll be fun for me to see, you know,
through spring training.
Speaker 2: You know, I only got to play with him.
Speaker 7: For a little bit, so it'd be fun for me
to see and you know, kind of be with around
him through spring training.
Speaker 2: You know, Septembers are crazy, and you've been through yourself.
Guys will come up. You know, Zach had an opportunity,
made the most of it. But there's a transition from
being great for one month and being consistently good for
six months. And so I guess that's the thing you
had to learn and he has to do as well.
Speaker 7: Yeah, Yeah, that's gonna be the tough thing for him
going into this year. The pictures, you know, all pictures know,
and the league adjusts to kind of what you do,
and so you know, hopefully he's he's kind of put
in work to be ready for for that adjustment.
Speaker 2: By the other side of the outfield, I mean, Cam
had a great march and I think he probably got
a little bit of that freshman I just of being
in a major league. So what what is his message?
What do you think he needs to do coming in
here to at that right field spot.
Speaker 7: Yeah, just keep being Cam, keep growing, keep learning, which
he does.
Speaker 2: He did last year.
Speaker 7: He learned, He learned a ton and uh was I
mean did a great job all around. I don't care
what the numbers say he did. He had an awesome
year to me, and he's going to show that this year.
He's going to show that growth this year and I'm
really excited to.
Speaker 2: See him be a part of it. President. The numbers
are up one, so we know that their sky right
through the roof, especially with that breakout last year. You
got to keep that up, keep that defensive numbers, right Yeah, yeah,
need at the play too. Come on, give the man
some credit. How do you keep that going.
Speaker 7: Uh, just keep being disciplined, keep keep putting together really
good abs every day, every game. And you know, I
think where I grew was getting on base for the
other guys, and you know that that's how I feel
I can be really good and the contact was up
this year. Maybe show a little oath and the slugging,
that'd be awesome. But uh, I kind of learned who
I was and how I can help the team.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much for the time. In the February
meeting of the Jake Myers Fan Club has come to
a conclusion. I appreciate you guys. The man himself, Jake Myers,
he loves us. He loves you. I told him after
the interview, is like, hey man, anytime you get a
home run, you make a big catch, I get a
million tweets. He's like, oh man, that's awesome. So he's
gonna keep up the good work for me. You actually,
you know what you should do. You should get some
seats behind home centerfield, I guess, and not like the
Paris area back there. Okay, hey, those are standing room.
Those are cheap. Yeah, can get out there. I'm not
talking like but the pump in the club, like the
Butdweizer center field area. Those are standing room too. You
got to get there early for that. But you gottat food.
You gotta like a big bar tap. I think I'm no,
I'm not gonna I'm gonna be spending any booze. Man.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: I was seriously thinking about putting together a wave Buster's night,
But it feels like the wave has calmed down a
little bit. Okay, so the wave buster should do it
the way the best or movement is working beautifully. If
you build it, they will come. Well, it's a slow
stead he climb towards ending of the wave. We don't
see it in the NBA. We don't see it in hockey.
We don't see it in college football, don't sit in pros.
It's just the jort wearing morons in baseball. Yeah, it
is way more prevalent, way more not saying other sports
don't do a little bit of it, but it's happens.
It's all over the place, and we're seeing it at
every stadium now, I mean even the hallow grounds of
Fenway Park and which is the upper deck and the
Monster and it still does it. Yeah, they did it
a couple of years ago when I went to the
Manchester City versus Group America and do but you've partaken that.
I don't remember. I had a couple of soccer makes
sense because it's generally speaking a pretty boring sport. You're
gonna do something to keep it time, keep awake, you
say so. I know it's the only time I've ever
saw get done. I know, all right, we want to
hear from Cam Smith. I would love to. Cam's good guy.
He is. He knows he's got an opportunity to at
right field spot. But I also think he's not naive
to realize that there are people coming maybe for his job,
especially when Zach Coley hat on so arder today. That
was a good visit. That call was great. If that
Cole and Jake Myers and Cam Smith can all be great,
we would have all three of a great astros outfield
and one well. It would solidify this show seven eight
nine in the lineup for sure. And we you know
we have not done a projected Storry lineup yet one
important guy left off the list, one of their best
three hitters on the team. Oh you know, we'll do.
Let's WAITTI that if that deal happens either that week. Wait, wait,
half way till open well literally opening day, maybe like
the day before opening day. We can do a rolling projection.
That's true. It's like mock draft one point oh. That's
nothing like mock draft three point oh. Yeah. By the way,
I have a mock draft up of the Texan selection. Yes,
my first round pick is available. If you want to
look at my Twitter account at sports Empty, it is
there for you to choose and look at. I will
be constantly updating that, uh stock that draft as soon
as I value. I'm busying baseball. Mom, he got you.
It's very You're very You're in. You're covering the Rockets.
We're out here at spring training. Yes, breaking down draft
tape is tough too, man. I am now giving you
inside information on a variety of things and gave you
the the uh the Joe mix and stuff, and uh yeah,
I continued to uh, Ohbil, you should I just knock
out this coffee and Danish thing right now. I go
for coffee after the show you're talking about. I owe
you a coffee in a Danish I think I might nap.
I don't want coffee, all right, that's fair seven one
three two one. I want to almond croissant. I'm sure they
have almond croissants here too. I thought I thought Jonathan
was supposed to go, Um, yeah, he can go. I'm
just milking it. Well, can do it today, but I
do want to get a nap after the nap now,
but then I'm gonna be up all night. Doesn't do
tomorrow morning? No, nope, can't we get a pack? Yeah,
you're right, we'll do in Houston. We'll figure it out.
Cam Smith is after I tell you about the Shell
Federal Credit Union. We were talking about that app field.
We had Zach Cole with us earlier today, the Joey
Little Prafedo on and we'll finish it with the visit
we had earlier today. If you got ketchup, now is
a good time to hear from Cam Smith as he
reflects on season number two in the Big leagues. Okay, Cam,
a blur of last year, vivid details all the way through.
How do you reflect on twenty twenty five?
Speaker 4: Yeah, dream come true? A really good time. Honestly, I've
got a great group of guys with me. It made
my first year a lot easier having guys that can
rely on. Everybody in this in this clubhouse, from catchers, pitchers,
position players, coaches, everybody.
Speaker 2: I would say probably the best thing that happened for you.
Not only was the great march making the opening day roster,
but your transition to rank field was as difficult as
you thought it would be. Or it was it a
case of you don't what you can brocken yourself. You
put the hard worker in it and it paid off.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would say it makes the both for sure.
Obviously I was working every day with Clarkey and jab
our outfield coach every day, and just the small things
that what it takes to be a right fielder. But
also it wasn't easy. It wasn't easy. I had a
little adjustment period. I said, when I first got out there,
the hitter was blurry to me. I couldn't My eyes
weren't adjusted to seeing that far.
Speaker 2: You know, there are contacts you can no, no, I
don't need contact.
Speaker 4: It was like, I'm so used to them, so used
to being at third base, whereas right yeah yeah, So
so being all the way out there in right field,
I was like, wow, I had to get my eyes.
Speaker 2: Used to it. Was there a particular park or a
situation that you made good. Oh, I'm gonna have a
ton more difficult time seeing the ball.
Speaker 4: Yes, Uh, Sacramento was terrible only because only because there's
only one deck. So so at other parks there's three
to four. So the ball, the ball is a nice
there's a nice contrast behind the ball when it goes
in the air. But a Sacramento is just a blue
sky and.
Speaker 2: That's miserable for you. For a guy like yourself, you
just kind of learning.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was definitely an adjustment. It was definitely an adjustment.
I wouldn't say miserable, but you definitely they have to
try to focus on it more than you usually have to.
When there's four three deck, three to four decks.
Speaker 2: Put you're on the verge getting at goal glove eventually, right, Yeah, absolutely,
is that the goal? Absolutely?
Speaker 4: Absolutely, there's no reason why I can't do it.
Speaker 2: Tell me about your plate work. I know the second
half of the year is not what you wanted. Did
you look at any video and say, I'm doing something
in the second half of the year that maybe I
should have done in the like I was doing in
the first half year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would just say more just staying consistent with
my approach instead of trying trying new things every day.
I think just sticking with one thing that works for
me and I know that works for me, is is
gonna be key?
Speaker 2: What was it like for you mentally, especially with I
mean it had to be your head spinning. I mean
it was such a whirlwind to go from as so
quick as you did, from the Florida States and now
and then major leagues and being as successful as you were.
If you step away from that, what is it like
now that you kind of reflect back on that and
kind of step away from then and got the off season.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm glad I got thrown in the fire. I
don't think there's any other way to, you know, learn
on the go than being thrown in the fire. I
think if you time to think about it, like I just,
I don't know, I think it's better to just be
on spot and reactive than you know, having a big
build up. You know, when things build up, you start
to think more. But I'm glad I just got that
opportunity to make the opening day roster and just go
and figure it out.
Speaker 2: Your off season was different because you went from Florissa
to playing in the big leagues to being by the
way of being traded to your now an astro and
you know where you're supposed to be. What did you
do and how did you step away from the game
and then get back into it as you got ready
for spring training here now?
Speaker 4: Yeah, spending more time with family. Honestly, I didn't see
them too much throughout the season, just because we're all
across the country. So I did have some more family time,
I could say, this offseason, and then once it got
time to ramp him back up, it was just at
the facility every day, honestly, getting ready for this moment
right here.
Speaker 2: What are some of the things you've been working on,
because I mean baseball, of course, is you can add
ten things or take away ten things from your swing
or your approach. What is it like for you to process,
like whittling down what's going to work for you or
things to try to improve.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would just say simplifying everything, keeping it simple.
As cliche as it sounds, it's true, It's true. I
think the best hitters are able to play so long
because they keep it simple and they all have similarities
in their swing. There's always absolute of hitting, So keeping
it simple is the main thing for me.
Speaker 2: From high end college baseball to the limited time you
were in the minor leagues. The biggest difference in a
major league picture as compared to what you saw maybe
in the previous twelve calendar runs.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the the caliber of pitching is obviously outstandingly better
spin rates, and that the stuff they have the pitch,
the pitch arsenal is the The IQ of the pitchers
is a lot is a lot higher than you know,
a college pitcher. I could say for sure. They know
the game, they know they know how hitters react, they
know how to, you know, get to their weak spots
and stick to it.
Speaker 2: Lastly, do you want to be a guy as you
ramp up with this? And everybody's got different plans? The
veterans don't play as much young for guys like yourself,
I mean, do you do you want to be in
the line every day? How does a perfect spring training
schedule for you layout over the next month or so? Yeah?
Speaker 4: If I could play every day, I would. I think
Joe has a program though, where he has guys playing
one day on one day off.
Speaker 2: But if I had a choice, I'd play every day.
Speaker 4: I think it's very important to see this caliber of
pitching early on to get in the rhythm of things,
you know, getting your first at bats under your belt
for the season and getting that nice momentum into the
twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: Six season, and Zach's got an opportunity to take that
left field spot. He had a cup of coffee. Any
advice for him as you went through this just a
year ago.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Honestly, the way he carries himself is my advice
to him, Like, keep doing the same thing. He's a professional.
He can see the way he walks, the way he
goes about his business, his prep work, his recovery. It's
all it's all right. I've seen it. I've seen how
these guys do it, and I see a resemblance.
Speaker 11: All right.
Speaker 2: Very lastly, Jake Myers covers a lot of space. Is
he calling you off too much to tell the truth?
Speaker 4: And we won't tell him first? And really I would say, yes,
I want, I want, I want every ball that's out
there in the year. I want everyone, But I got
to give it to the center fielder for sure.
Speaker 2: That's because he's trying to work on his he's trying
to work on his Thanks for the time, appreciate, thank
you that again, Cam Smith in the clubhouse earlier today.
And here's the thing, and it's nice. These are still
a very young infield. They're all nice guys. They are
all very polite, they're happy to see us. It'll take
us to link the time for them to listen to
our show and listen to callers call and they'll eventually
hate us. That's most players too, Iop Skinning. We actually
got a good relationship. We're actually very lucky. Yes, the
Astros have had generally speaking, and I'm talking about that.
This is my second go around covering the team, and
this has been since twenty ten, so we're talking about
now seventh. This is seventeenth year. I can put on
one hand the name of a number of bad dudes
in the Astros clubhouse. Some not amazing, but most have
been at least professional to really super likable. We're very
lucky here and we're also I mean, I think it
does help to come out here. And you know, we've
had we've talked to we've talked to Cam Smith last year,
We've had couple of years. You yeah, we're not looking
at it. You know, crush people and go viral and
do a bunch of crazy hot takes, that's not that's
not how baseball doesn't lend itself to that. I mean
basketball does credit. That's what I'm saying. Well, I'm probably
more than you, but me than you. But that's another
you know there. Uh but yeah, I mean in the
history of the team, a couple I'll give you my
list in no particular order. This is no particular order.
Jeff Can't was an a hole. Yes, Greg Swindell Young
Matt Thomas did not like him. Really one more legend.
If he's a leg that's good. Uh. I didn't like
Julio Lugo and he eventually got his comeuppins, and that
was not good. I wasn't the biggest mark Portugal fan. Again,
this is so is so far long ago. Pete Harness
was difficult because he was so East coast. Uh. Brett
Myers hands down number one biggest jerk of all the
years I've ever cut the Astros, followed by Jeff Kent.
Those two really separate themselves from everybody else. Jef Kent
was before my time. Brett Myers, I can't attest I
saw some things. Can you mention your story in a
PG version? I don't know. I mean, it's fine. It's
not a big deal. I've told it on air before. Okay,
Well then quickly, yeah, we we used to hand out
gift certificates for from uh a certain Brazilian steakhouse. Correct
player of the game. Yeah, he was the player of
the game on a road trip and I went to
go give him the certificate along with Dylan Gwynn and
but no, no, he said, what the bleep do I
want this for? Threw on the ground and then he
didn't I told this story wrong recently. He didn't stomp,
and he kicked it, kicked it away. It's like, we're
just trying to give you this player of the Game certificate,
but he asked nothing in return. He won it on
the on the road trip and they had lost that night,
so I guess he was madday lost, even though he
didn't pitch. Yeah, yeah, just a miserable.
Speaker 7: That.
Speaker 2: I will leave it at that. And like I said,
you know you were. You know, not everybody's gonna be awesome, right,
But I think some people love Brett Myers. Yeah, one
person does. I won't mention his name. Uh, you know,
we did yesterday on the show, and I don't know
think we can do it for two straight days because
it's kind of out of our with this is tomorrow.
We got we're loading up with the interviews in the
last hour, so we won't do it today. But you know,
we took last segment calls yesterday and show he did.
Do you want to do it again? I'd like to
see if we can do it todays in a row.
We're not gonna to do it for three because we're
gonna we're gonna bank some interviews for the last hour
of the show. But if you are listening to us
right now, I just want to call in about anything
we don't We usually play Believe It or Not? The
prize horrors already locked and loaded to call the show
normally yet, but we don't have we're not playing today,
So if you'd like to call in with anything, we're
looking for the last segment shout out, what do you
want to get into? Do you want to be excited
as hell about the Astros season coming up? Are you
anxious to see what the Texans may do in free agency?
Are you ready for the rocket second half of the year.
It's a last segment shout out with you. I promise
we'll go back to Believe it or not on Thursday,
because that is America's fastener on sports game show, is it?
It is been growing for sixteen straight years. We got
our last segment shout outs, I love this and uh,
let's talk to the people here. Let's start with Trey
in seven hoey, Trey, what do you got today? Anything?
You want?
Speaker 10: A good show today? Guys. You really enjoyed Zach Cole's interview.
He seemed to have a pretty good.
Speaker 2: Dude he was. I was very happy with that.
Speaker 10: Yeah, all around. Cam Smith too. So James called in
earlier raising hell about the Astro's payroll. Earlier a month
or so ago, there was a report out about the
Dodgers revenue. Depending on what report you look at, it's
anywhere between eight hundred and fifty into a billion a year,
and I started looking at it and surprised me to
learn that the Astros are right at the top in
terms of the percentage of their payroll to their overall revenue.
And you look at their profit estimates and they were
marginally in the black.
Speaker 3: So, you know, kind of had a.
Speaker 10: Different perspective about the way Crane is managing the ball club.
Obviously it's the business, but you know, it's kind of
I don't know, but maybe they term it that kind
of makes you proud with respective the way that Houston
is managing next overall ball love an you compare it
to the Mets, for example, Yeah, they're deep in the
red every year, and it led me to wonder not
maybe you guys know, you know, the Astros recently sold
three of their four minor league affiliates, and you know
that's not a lot of money involved, but are the
Astros still on the hook or minor league salaries or
does the new owner take all that'll.
Speaker 2: No, those are professional contracts that are signed by the
parent team when we're talking, and thank you for the
phone call trade. Those are organizations. Those minor league organizations
were bought by a conglomerate that wants to buy and
wants to own and has owns multiple minor league baseball teams.
They own the stadium, they own the leases, they own
the marketing, the concessions, the tickets that they do, all
of the stuff. But the the parent clubs supply the players.
So that's the difference is that these are still players
in the Astros organization that have minor league affiliates, and
the reason for those this this conglomerate bought these teams
is that if you own ten or eleven minor league teams,
you can you know, sadly consolidate your staff. Yes, you
can have three people do the job of eleven. It's
to eleven people do the job of eleven. Wider scope
of sales. And if you are going to go to
say Rubway, that's a bad one Subway, thank you, and say, hey,
do you want to be in eleven small to mid
sized markets with advertising, I'll put signing in in eleven
different pollparks as compared to the aster a single minor
league team trying to sell that marketing to a bit
to a company. It's just consolidation, that's all it is. Yes,
but there's nothing to be read into. Is Jim in
trouble or is is he looking I can't image age.
The money that is being given to this group is considerable. Yeah,
the the group is offering over market price for all
these teams to try to buy them up, and oh quite,
Frank limnopolize what's going on in the minor leagues and
do exactly what you said. Fewer staff and more sales
and more revenue and Honestly, if I was doing it
that way, I would do the exact same thing these
minor league teams. While you do have young people working
for minimal dollars. Do you need a director of marketing
for the Fayeteville Woodpeckers. You don't, but that that director
of marketing handles the Woodpeckers, and it handles the Charlotte
Knights and the Durham Bulls. It it keeps people working. Well, yeah,
well it eliminates jobs in some respects because some people,
some teams don't even have it at all. Yeah. So yeah,
but it's it's all. The end of the end game
is consolidation. Yeah, eliminate jobs, pay out, fewer people, make
more profits. Let's go. Well, that's their that's their business.
I mean, but it's happening. It's happening at our company.
Is there a lot of places? I'm Mac, You're on
seven ninety. Good afternoon to you, Mac.
Speaker 5: Good afternoon to you, gentlemen.
Speaker 11: Hey, So C. J. Stroud has a pretty live arm, right.
Speaker 2: I would think so fine?
Speaker 11: So is it good enough that? And I don't know
enough about football to answer my own question, but is
it good enough that maybe his mechanic. He never had
to get good mechanics because he was just relying on
pure talent.
Speaker 2: I think he's got pretty good mechanics and throwing motion
and all a quick release and all that stuff.
Speaker 11: Okay, all right, cool, How do we get baseball ticket
prices down so I can go see more games?
Speaker 2: Uh, you're going to have to probably watch the dynamic pricing. Honestly,
it's going to be easier for you to go back
to a game on a Wednesday against the A's and
it would be to go on a Friday against the
Red Sox. I mean, truth be told, if if you're
budgeting for dollars, not all games are created equals, So
you're gonna have to find value in the games and
the opponents. I know that's maybe that's what you don't
want to hear, but that's the reality of it.
Speaker 11: Ten For I usually hit the the Wednesday your Thursday
day games as much as you can.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the way I would go. Thank you for
the phone call. That's what you do it. We'll get
a time machine. Well you can also you know, if
you buy a mini plan, maybe that helps out a
little bit where it stabilizes the cost a little bit
as compared to bulk. Yeah, it's like a bundle if
you will. All right, we're at a time. We got
to get to the A Team next. Yes, let's say goodbye.
We've got four hours tomorrow. Here Christian Walker, Dana Brown
among others. It's the team next on seventh nine,