The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian Bogusevic Discusses Astros Continued Struggles

Episode Date: April 29, 2026

Brian Bogusevic Discusses Astros Continued Struggles

1102 on Sports Talk 790. We start our number two of the radio program. I'm here in Los Angeles, Ross back in Houston, Brian Bogus-Evick, you've been seeing and watching and enjoying his coverage of pre- and post games on Space City Home Network, S-C-H-N. And Bogie's with us every Wednesday at 11 o'clock here on the show. Bogie, last night a case of a lot of people on the base paths, not enough of them touching the Pay Station. Yeah, you know, we saw a lot of that in the first. last couple of years the way the offense has been this year. We haven't seen quite as many of those. But it's still going to happen. Honestly, a lot of it has to do with the opponent that you're facing

and what they've got. Shane Boz is a big swing and miss guy. And it happens. I'm at the point with this offense. I'm pretty confident, even though there has been a little bit of a lull and drop off recently. They're going to score runs. They're going to be fine. Yes, games like this, it kind shows up bigger when you don't get it done. But, you know, a couple of times this year when we've said, oh, you know, they had a, they had this basis loaded opportunity. They, they only got one run out of it or whatever. It almost feels like you're being a little greedy and asking too much of the offense at times.

It's going to, it's going to happen. So, yeah, it got them yesterday. But I think overall, more often than not, we should be okay with the way the offense goes. Let me ask you this. And I've never been one of the. those that worries too much about having enough left-handed bats, enough right-handed bats in the lineup. But case important, a couple of times in the game yesterday, the Orioles could go to right-handed relievers with the so heavy right-handed side of the Astro lineup.

Obviously, that's a construction. That's obviously about who's healthy and who can go. But do you sometimes worry, even before the start of the season, bogey, that maybe this team was too right-handed dependent? Because Dana-Bron has mentioned on numerous occasions, he's always been looking for a left-handed at bat. No, absolutely. You need, you need balance. You need guys that hit from the both sides. You need guys who are contact hitters. You need guys who are power hitters. You need guys who, you know, work at bat's different ways. And for me, it's not, it's not necessarily a left-handed,

right-handed for you. It's not, you know, we can't get it done if we're all right-handed or left-handed. It's about what that poses to the other side. It changes a manager's ability to play matchups coming out of the bullpen or target certain parts of the lineup with certain guys. It also from a starting pitcher who's got to go through that lineup two or three times, they're going to go through long stretches of seeing righty, righty, righty, righty, and they can pitch the same way. The more you make a pitcher have to do multiple things, you know, he's got to pitch in, he's got to pitch out, he's got to go up down, he's got to throw changeups to this guy,

but he's got to go sliders to this guy. It just seems like there are times when with a right-handed dominant, lineup, specifically a right-handed pitcher, can just fall in love with fastballed glove slide, slide or off of it. And they just fall into a rhythm, whereas if you get them off their spot, it's like a shooter who's hot from the spot. If you get them off of that spot, maybe you just break that rhythm a little bit. And when that rhythm gets broken, they become susceptible to mistakes.

And if you just let them stay in that groove over and over and over again, you don't get the mistakes to hit. All right. So if you're Joe Espada, how do you manage around a lineup where you're just don't have that kind of selection available to you. You have what you have. And you try to find other ways around it. You know, look, I'll take best nine over best five righties and four lefties.

You know, I'll just give me the best overall in general. But understanding what individuals do differently, you know, if you have a guy who, like Parades, a guy who's looking to pull versus maybe a Cam Smith, who likes to use the middle of the field and the other way more. You can kind of play those off of each other in your lineup construction and try to get the most out of what you have. It was like when Hector Narris would come out of the bullpen. Yes, he was a right-handed pitcher,

but he had that split so it made him an option against left-handed hitters. Try to find things like that. Try to find guys who are reverse platoon types. But at the end of the day, you've got what you've got. and you run out the lineup that, you know, you just take your best guys versus trying to match up at certain spots in the lineup. Brian Bogusevich with us here on Sports Talk 790. You mentioned Cam Smith, and I do want to ask what you're seeing from him,

but also I'm curious if you can give us some kind of insight into the cat and mouse game when it comes to a guy like him who's changing his approach, it's working to start the season, and then things kind of go south a little bit to where he's now hitting eighth in the lineup. What is that like from a hitter standpoint of trying to figure out what you want to do and then kind of readjusting when other pitching staffs are readjusting? Well, hitting is fluid. There is no destination in hitting, even the best hitters in the world.

You know, the guys were in the Hall of Fame over time. Their swings were tinkered with, their setups were tinkered with, their approaches change, and it's all kind of based on how you're feeling and how the matchup is from day to day. So that's something that as you mature as a hitter, you know, I think young hitters are often trying to figure out what is it that's going to click and then I'm the hitter that I'm supposed to be. And at time goes on, you realize you're never actually there. You're just always working and you just get comfortable in that.

And it's kind of just something that comes over time. And, you know, Cam's a very mature kid and he's got a lot of veteran hit. hitters around him who, you know, he can make him understand that. And he's just in one of those points right now where it's a readjust. And timing was so important for Cam. And it was something that he was trying to get on last year. It's something that we saw at the beginning of this season working very well for him and kind of his start and his load and getting in a position to hit early. He can get a little stale at times. And even when he's doing that little leg kick, his hands can get a little stagnant to where his body's drifting back, but he's not getting his hands back.

His hands are kind of getting stuck at his shoulder so that when he goes to swing, he's not actually in that ready position that he's trying to get to. And it's just, you know, he's in one of those spots now to where he's trying to get on time and he's just not on time. And then you overcompensate, you know, you start pushing forward. You start trying to get a little rotational, trying to make up for what you didn't get in the back of your swing. And, you know, it's just, it's something that every hitter goes through.

over the course of the season. You have times when you feel right when you don't, especially young hitters, it comes and goes quicker, and it can take a little bit longer to find. But, you know, it's one of the reasons why they were okay with him making the team out of spring training this year and him trying to go through all of these growing pains at the major league level because they felt like he could handle it from a mental standpoint

and be able to work through it here. A little bit more on the positive side. nice game from Bryce Matthews. He had three hits. What did you see from him last night? You know, a guy who's getting a little bit more playing time and getting comfortable. It's a really difficult thing to do for a young player to go into a part-time or, you know, at one point this beginning this year, it was less than part-time role where you're not getting regular at bats.

His entire life, he's been an everyday player and he's gotten every day at bats and he's always had the rhythm of being an everyday guy. And he's always had the timing of being an everyday guy. And then, you know, all of a sudden you sit for four or five days and they say, hey, you're in, you're in today. Try to try to hit this 100 mile an hour fastball and don't swing at the slider in the dirt. And it's like, oh, man, I haven't seen a pitch in a couple days. So I think a guy who trying to adjust to that for the first time,

but now based into a more everyday role in the outfield looks a little bit more timed up and looks like the swing quality is a little bit better. There were some times where he was just off. When he was coming in, you know, not sitting pitching for a couple days, he was late, he was jumpy, he was, you know, his head was flying as he was trying to generate the bat speed to catch up. And now it just looks a little bit more smoothed out and a little bit more on time. All right, a few more minutes here with Brian Bogussevich on Space City Home Network here

on Sports Talk 790. So Bogie, they went with a bullpen game yesterday. A thought or two about EMI, a thought about bullpen games this early in the year. Again, a lot of it is because of necessity. And then a thought or two, obviously, about what we saw, at least numbers-wise, from Corpus Christi about EMI. We weren't there to see eyewitness. Just getting back on the bump, what are you thinking if you were a pitching coach, if you were a friend of Tatsui about how he approaches getting back to becoming a Houston Astro again?

I think so the most important thing. I think for Imi, whether he's pitching in Corpus or pitching here or whatever he's doing is he's got to get confident. He's got to get confident in himself and trust the fact that he's good enough to get Major League hitters out. And he looks like a guy who is very uncomfortable and the fact that he's uncomfortable is affecting his confidence. You know, a lot has been made of just all the things that he's trying to deal with in adjusting to American life and American baseball. and when all of your processes and routines are thrown off, you don't have anything to fall back on when you're not getting the results that you want, and that can shake your confidence.

And when your confidence gets shaken, it doesn't matter how talented you are. It doesn't matter, you know, pitch or hitter, where you're at, AA major leagues, you're going to struggle. And I didn't see him throw. I didn't even see what the velocities were or anything, but just looking at that line and mainly the pitch count, right, 60 pitches to get through two innings of a double a outing for a guy who's not come. He's fatigued.

He's not hurt. It's just too many pitches. It's too difficult to get through two innings. And it looks like a guy who's not comfortable just going out there and reaching back and thrown it by some double a hitters. And that, to me, screams a guy who's unsure of himself. And, you know, confidence is a tough thing. to say how do you get it back?

I don't know, but he's got to get confident in all the things that go into getting him ready to pitch. And as far as the starter, the pitching staff right now, if you're Ryan Weiss, if you're EMI, I'm not EMI, if you're Wang, if you're any of these other guys that have been going back and forth between bullpen starters, you got a chance here to kind of establish yourself because so many guys are still not ready to go, but it's sometimes easier to send than done. I mean, I know Ryan would like to be a starter, and he's talked to him. about it when he signed the deal originally, but it's going to come down to performance and how much trust that Joe has in a guy like Weiss and other people in that group as well.

No, absolutely. I mean, that's the silver lining of injuries, is that it creates opportunity, and you look at, you know, what Lambert and Araggetti have done. Those guys have put themselves in a really good position to move forward, you know, regardless of who comes back from injury. And I think the Kai Wei Tang experiment is an opener. Are they going to try to stretch him out? We'll see what they do. I think they might ultimately decide that he can be maximized as a reliever. But yeah, I mean, Ryan Weiss is going to get opportunities.

He's got the stuff. When he's in the zone, the stuff is good. He's got to throw more strikes. He's got to stay ahead and count. But for the foreseeable future, there are going to be innings to be had and opportunities for guys to take. they can. Bogey, great visit as always.

I don't know if you're walking tonight, but have your rain delay material ready to go for Space City Studio work. You know, this is the first series that I've had off, and it's the first rain threat that we've had, and I am not mad about it. At least you're being honest. Thanks, Bogie. We'll talk to you again next week.

Thanks for the visit. See you guys. All right. That's Brian Bogusevic.