The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian Bogusevic Joins After Astros Get Swept vs Tigers

Episode Date: August 21, 2025

Brian Bogusevic Joins After Astros Get Swept vs Tigers

1101 Sports Talk 790. Let's spend 10 cold a minutes with our friend Brian Bogusevick. He was busy on TV duty yesterday, so we switched him to today, and he joins us here on 790. Bogi, it's great to hear your voice, as always. Help me. We spent the first hour trying to figure out what has happened to our favorite left-hander, who has had a disastrous month of April. Hunter Brown knew the situation was tight against Tarek's.

He had to be as good as he possibly could, and he was for those innings that he threw. Astros needed a lengthy game. They got their five innings from their starter in Framber Valdez, but it was more of a, hey, we got nobody else. You're going to have to worry this a little bit. Yeah, it was certainly disappointing, you know, seeing Framber not really go out there and rise to the occasion. I think you've got to look at it through two different lenses.

You know, first of all, the physical, right? Like, this is two out of his last three starts where the sinker hasn't had the right shape, the curveball has been pretty ineffective. And so that's kind of a, you got to sit down, you got to look at some video, you got to work on your mechanics in between starts, and get that right. You know, when he's kind of feeling for his sinker a little bit and you see the velocity really varying, that's when you can tell he's trying to find the right shape and the right release point.

And he just didn't have it yesterday. But that happens throughout the course of the season. That's something that you can fix. That is unfortunate that it's happening now. it just is what it is. The other side of it is kind of looking at it from, you know, where's Frommber at mentally, right? This is something that we've seen pop up throughout the course of his career is when things don't go his way, frustration builds and it snowballs on him. And, you know, innings get away from him and, you know, he kind of becomes his own worst

enemy. And, you know, we've never seen it like yesterday where it almost felt like he was frustrated going into the game. Usually it takes a blue pit, you know, some guys bunting on him and trying to steal bases to really kind of rattle him a little bit. It almost felt like going into that game with where the offense has been. It was almost like a, you know, instead of going into that game thinking, I'm going to be the guy that elevates us. I'm going to be the guy that, you know, even if we're not scoring runs, I'm going to throw up a bunch of zeros and give us a chance.

It almost was a, oh, man, you know, we're not going to score any run. It's going to be harder than it should be. It was almost a defeated before you went out there kind of feeling. And that's really concerning because, you know, you. You need your best guys to be the guys that kind of stand up and say, hey, you made an error behind me? I'll pick you up. You guys in scorny runs, I'll pick you up. And that start to the game yesterday certainly was not that.

And, Brian, we've got to be fair here. We don't want to be psychologists on the radio show. We want to be people that talk about the game. You've played the game. You know the intricacies of it. But it is a pretty fair assertion to say that if you're seeing that before the game, that's a huge cause for concern. Now, he could have his daubber down and then go throw seven innings of three hit ball and spin and beautiful and get the high strike guy count.

And we'd be like, well, that's just Framer Vian Fommer. But it's so disheartening because, you know, I thought Hunter Brown went in there going, Terrick Scoobel is one of the best pitchers in the game. I've got to be my very best. And I thought he had the moxie to do that. And I guess the thing is not every player you've ever played with Brian Bogussevick or every pitcher, you've been with or you've covered or talked about or played it with. Has that moxie of, I don't care what's going against us. I'm going to fight through it. And maybe Framber just

one of those guys. But at the same time, we've seen him come up big in big situations and playoff games in the past. So it's not really that. It's more of just getting him into the right headspace because we know from experience that he can be a guy that can go out there and thrive in pressure-packed situations. And, you know, sometimes it builds, start, overstart. There's been some things that haven't gone Framber's way, even when he's been really good in a couple of starts recently. So it's really just getting him in the right space. You know, in between starts, you've got to work on things mechanically in your bullpen sessions, but you also got to get in the right head space. And I think, you know, having a strong clubhouse, you know, having

Carlos Correa back, having El Tubei there to kind of sit down with him and reassure him that, you know, we're all in this with you and we need you. I think that's kind of where you, where you got to get him to because if he's right, I mean, I'm not talking about physically right, but when he's right and he's going out there and taking on that challenge, I mean, he's been up to it in the past. Brian Bogus, I'm with us here on Sports Talk 790. Bogie, this lineup construction, that's where I think a lot of folks will call me and say, hey, why is this player in front of this guy?

Why is this guy hitting in this part of the order? And look, Joe's just trying to find something that works. And unfortunately, when you've had such little offense the last handful of days it's well. Try, flip, move different guys around. Generally speaking, your assessment of the lineup in terms of its up and down changes, I don't think there's much to do with it because it's not like it's been a certain pocket of players that have done their job and it just felt like a collective slump among the entire team. Thus the case with no runs being scored except for the two run home or yesterday afternoon. Yeah, I mean, you only have, you know, the tools that are at

your disposal. And I mean, we've seen, we've seen lineup tweaks throughout the course. course of the season where if there's only a handful of guys who have it going, you know, Joe's really tried to bunch those guys up so you have some semblance of, you know, guys stringing at bats together. The problem right now is that it's not really going that way for anybody. And you can only make a lineup out of what you got. And, you know, they dropped Sanchez down in the, in the lineup a little bit. But, you know, at some point, the lineup is what it is and the roster is what it is. And it's on the players to go out there and hit.

You can try to find favorable matchups and kind of give yourself advantages in the margins. But when the players aren't hitting, it doesn't matter, you know, if you're hitting first or you're hitting ninth, honestly. Bogey, this team has had its offensive roles really more so this consistently as compared to being a team that's putting up seven, eight, nine runs. To me, this has been a kind of a byproduct of you. got a lot of guys getting a lot of A-Bs that maybe are playing the most. And I'll use Cam Smith as an example.

Taylor Tremel has been a guy that's been up and down with a variety of different teams. Jacob Melton looks like he's not necessarily ready for the big time of Major League Baseball. How much of that is, do you think, is the moment right now is really big for a lot of these young men who have not gotten as many professional at bats like this. How much of this is dog days and how much of this is, my God, Yordon, please make sure your hands. please make sure your hands feel good. We need you in the heart of the lineup as soon as humanly possible. I think the biggest thing is, you know, middle of the order, major league hitters, run producers, big time hitters like Yordon or guys like him, aren't very common.

And you can find guys who are swinging a hot bat and have them in the middle of the order for a while. And you can, you know, play a hot hand for a little bit. But, you know, at the end of the day, to have a, you know, big-time offense that consistently produces runs, you need the horses to do it. And, you know, they did a great job for a long time getting by piecing together a lineup and having guys put in situations where they can thrive and getting production out of the bottom of a lineup of guys who are just kind of filling in roles. You know, a lot of that has to do with you need your big guys up at top producing so the guys further down the lineup can just be, you know, supplementing. that. But, you know, at the end of the day, you become who you are. And, you know, Cam Smith is a guy who was in college last year. And some of these other guys were guys that were not necessarily going to be counted on as everyday players. And when you get thrust

into that role, at some point, it's going to get exposed a little bit. And, you know, if they're going to score runs consistently and be a productive offense consistently, it's got to be from the guys who can do it. And getting Jordan back will be. helpful and getting Altovae hot again will be helpful and getting Christian Walker going will be helpful. But yeah, you're not going to consistently score runs if you're just trying to piecemeal a lineup together. How much did the former outfielder in you feel for Taylor Tremont at Hinty took in the first thing of the game yesterday? You know what? First of all, that's the position that you're in physically there where you're on a dead sprint backwards, but at the same time you're trying to kind

a fight to keep the ball from from tailing over your head so you're leaning back like that's the worst position you can be in to run face first into the wall so yeah that that that doesn't feel good but this is you know one of the things where you point at and you say okay the team's not playing well they're not hitting well they're not winning games you know how frustrating is it you know is joe spotted going in the clubhouse and flipping tables and stuff but it's like you've got guys literally running face first into the wall i mean the night before taylor taylor trammel laid out on the warning track and landed flat on his back. So there's no lack of effort. There's no lack of playing hard. And so, yeah, I feel for guys going out there and trying to put in that effort and

still not getting the results that they want, but, you know, it's not for lack of going for it. Lastly, and I don't mean to put 25 egos into your mind here for a second, or 26, I should say, but if you're Joe Espada and your team has scored two runs in a handful of games, nearly got perfect game the other night against Baltimore. You're seeing that same guy tonight, as a matter of fact. What is the clubhouse tenor? I know it has been so even keeled for about a decade, even when things haven't been great, because there have been some down spots.

There always isn't a 162 game schedule. But this feels, I don't know if the word tense. I know there was a player conversation that took place that Carlos Correa did and said a couple things here and there. How does Joe manage this when it's not necessarily about guys? not performing up to expectation. There may be a few in the mix, but it's also a lot of guys that are like, man, we just need some help. And whether it's coming through pitching and injuries and getting guys back, whether it's Jordan, and that's a lot of pressure on him. How does Joe handle the tough love versus August dog days versus if I start screaming and yelling and throwing water, gatorade bottles and whatnot, I might lose my clubhouse.

And we're still a game and a half in front of everybody else in the American League West. Yeah, it's certainly not about screaming and yelling. You know, that's not going to, that's not going to, that's not going to move the needle with guys. You know, what you do want to do is express and create the sense of urgency, which is already going to be there with a lot of guys who've been through, you know, stretch runs and playoff hunts. But just kind of say, hey, guys, you know, we know that over the course of a season, you've worked your way out of slumps, but this is kind of, you know,

we don't have the luxury of time on our hands right now. We've got to push a little bit harder and just not even from a physical standpoint of working harder or doing more, but just we need that focus to be there every day and kind of lock in like we would if this were the last series of the season and our playoff hopes we're riding on it. Just kind of create that sense of urgency now, and hopefully things can click and you snap out of it and then carry that through the rest of the season. Great stuff. As always, friend, thank you for the time. We'll get you back on our normal Wednesday spot next week. We thank you and talk soon.