The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian Bogusevic Joins The Show After Astros Win The First 2 Games Of The Series vs Diamondbacks

Episode Date: July 23, 2025

Brian Bogusevic Joins The Show After Astros Win The First 2 Games Of The Series vs Diamondbacks

1101, Sports Talk 790. Matt and Ross with you here. And our regular Wednesday visitor, always a friend of the show, is Brian Bogus Effic of Space City Home Network. And he is here to join us to talk about what is an incredible run for a man with such a little experience from going against the Rangers in Seattle pitching staff

to going to Arizona and owning the building, Brian. I think everybody, even including Bryce Matthews, would have to be stunned at the way things are turned around in his first 10, baseball games. Yeah, I think, you know, any, any rookie coming in for the first time is just trying to get to a place to where, okay, I feel comfortable, I can contribute, I feel like I'm playing my game, but to go, you know, a couple games stretch where I'm basically carrying the

offense and winning games for a team that is trying to just find ways to win games at this point. It's a crazy turnaround. I think also, you know, it's not really a soft landing spot for, for your. first introduction to major league pitching when you're seeing, you know, the Rangers starters and the Mariners starters. So that might have something to do with it also. But, yeah, it's happened quickly. When you hear about a player who may not be ready yet, and that's exactly Joe, a spot

and didn't say it bluntly like that, but he's like, you know what, still a work in progress, still has things to learn. Is that difficult for a player to get that call because he obviously wants it, but at the same time he knows there are still things intricacies about second base intricacies about you know being a better contact hitter not striking out as much that's a lot for a young man to handle but really the team needed him so badly because guys were getting hurt you know on a day-to-day basis unfortunately yeah i think anybody if you're if you're asking a guy who's in the minor leagues would you rather be in the major leagues when you don't feel like you're ready then then

wait another year or so and feel like you're 100% ready they're going to to take option A for sure. But I think a lot of the transition has to do with communication from the top. What's expected from you? What do we know that you can do? Here's what we think you still need to work on. Here's how we're going to continue your development at this level, because we think you're still a player who's learning a new position and a guy who still, you know, doesn't have a full amount of that bats to become the hitter that we think you're going to be. So communicating those things and letting them know that it's okay, you're going to make mistakes and we're going to work through them. I think it also probably helps that he can look out behind him in right field and see Cam Smith as a guy who made the team out of spring training with even less at bats and less experience and no experience in the outfield and see what his development has been this year and know that this is an organization and a team that has a coaching staff that is not just, you know, major league coaching staffs,

used to be, we're here to take these finished products and win games. And it's a different story now. And they still have a ton of player development to do at this level. And you look at the guys, you look at Omar Lopez. You've got Tony Paris Chica. I mean, Joe Spada himself has a background in player development, specifically with infielder. So, yeah, there's a lot to be learned. But as long as the player knows that and as long as it's clearly shown to them how they're

going to get from A to B to C, it makes it easier. Bogey, let's look at this as a macro perspective. The team struggled getting to the All-Star break, did not look good in those first two games against Seattle, and then they put together three consecutive wins. That just once again shows you for the umpteenth time that Major League Baseball season is a marathon. But you know what's been consistent through all this? Bullpen has been largely excellent, and we're just seeing the series in this series alone. The defense, no matter who you're putting where is bailing this team out and saving this team one or two runs per game.

game. It's been really the unsung hero of the entire season. You know, when you can depend on, first of all, making all the plays, making the routine plays and not putting yourself behind the eight ball by making errors and costing yourself base runners and runs. But also, you know, maybe, maybe pushing it a little bit and taking some risks. I mean, Marie Sudebant throwing, you know, a runner out at home from from the cutoff position or them going after a lead runner at third base yesterday in a ground ball or cutting down a run at home. It's really become the opposite of a big data type of baseball where, you know, we're going to put together the best roster and feel like we're the better team.

And if we just play the game long enough over time, we're going to get the wins. They're not paying that anymore, right? They're taking chances. I mean, how many bunts have we seen over the course of the last couple weeks of guys just trying to get on base, put pressure on defense? They're trying to create a style of game where we know it's going to be close. We know it's going to be low scoring. but we think with our bullpen, with our defense, with the way we prepare with the matchups we think we can exploit,

that you will crack under the pressure and we won't. We will make the play that you're not going to make and find a way to win a game three to one or four to two or whatever it is. And if you're playing close games and where one or two plays is going to flip it, those are the kinds of things. You know, if somebody's out there and they've got an ace on the mound who's shoving, you're going to win no matter what. If you've got a lineup one through nine who's banging the ball around, you're probably going to win no matter what. But, you know, if it's a handful of plays, it's going to come down to, you know, a pitcher or two from a reliever, maybe being in a higher leverage situation than they're used to being. And are they prepared for that?

Or a guy, you know, making a snap decision to make a throw home instead of first base. And is he thinking about it ahead of time? And they've been really good at that stuff. Brian Bogus Heavik with us here on Sports Talk 790. and Isok Paratus going down in the lineup, and we've talked a lot about how he sees more pitches than everyone else. So with him gone, Brian, if you were, say, on the Astros staff, how much would you try to stress to the other guys to do that?

How much of that is in your mind in the batters box? Or you kind of want guys to stay within themselves? Yeah, I think it's something that is probably needs to be talked about and just understood, but it's more about picking and choosing time. you don't want somebody to completely change their approach. You don't want somebody going up there trying to be a hitter that they're not, you know, go out there and execute that bat the way you think is going to give you the best chance. You're not going to tell Jose Al-Tubia to go out there and start taking pitches.

But there are going to be times when maybe you need to slow the game down a little bit. If you look at Hunter's last start, he had really good in the first two innings. He had the long third inning and the long fourth inning. And in between that, the Astros had a five-pitch inning from there at bat. So he was out there for like a 30-pitch inning and a 25-pitch inning with only five pitches in between. You know, you don't want to run into those types of situations. It might happen every once in a while. But just recognizing, hey, guys, remember every once in a while, maybe we're going to need to see a pitch.

Maybe you're going to need to use your time out early on in that bat, not necessarily when you want to, but just to kill some time. It's something that needs to be aware of. But no, you're not going to go to anybody individually and ask them to change their style of hitting just because, you know, the guy who had the lungs that batch is down now. So Cam Smith has been taken over the leadoff spot, has been struggling at the plate since then. You're seeing anything different from him or just maybe a coincidence with the lineup spot? And how much does that even matter? Is that just something we like to talk about in fans and media with the lineup spot more than people who are playing the game? No, I don't think it's a lineup spot.

that's kind of, you know, outside of the maybe the first inning where he might feel it a little bit differently. It just is what it is. Honestly, I look at specifically for Cam and young players in general, it's this time of year, right? You're 100 games in. It's just dragging, dragging, dragging. There's really no end in sight. You know, you just come off the All-Star break, so maybe a little bit of a refresh. When we were on the last homestand, the Cleveland, Texas homestine, there were some times when he looked fatigued, physically and a little bit of.

bit mentally where it just looked like the season was getting to him a little bit. And that's normal for young players. It's certainly normal for a guy who played a 50 game college season last year. And it's typically a situation where, you know, you would say, hey, you're going to take a rest. You're going to be down on, you know, you're not going to play this game on Sunday because we off game, off day on Monday, we'll get you two days off your feet and come back refreshed. They can't do that. They literally need everybody they have. So he hasn't been able to get those, built-in breaks that they could provide a young player. He's out there just trying to grind through it.

And, you know, it takes a physical toll on you. It takes a mental toll on you, especially when, you know, you're not swinging at the way you want and you have to go out there day after day after day. So I don't know that it's necessarily a function of where he's hitting in the order. I think it's more just a function of it's a long season and he's doing it for the first time. Bogie, is there any sort of intangible breaking point with what's going on right now? Because again, it doesn't make sense. 17 players on the injured list. You are bringing up guys that are probably not going to be considered long-term major

leaguers. You've got one of your young stars who probably needed more seasoning at AAA coming up and helping. Is there anything that you're thinking about beyond just, hey, the competition's going to get harder? Well, guess what? The competition got harder two weeks ago in Los Angeles, and they went there and swept the series. Is there anything in the back of your mind you're thinking about as you watch this team, play the next two, three weeks before some of these guys come back and make this a full, wholesome Houston Astro team again?

You know, it's in the back of my mind, right, that it's got to catch up to them at some point just because that many injuries to that many significant players has to. But there's nothing that I can think of or point to to say, well, this is when it's going to happen because it should have happened already. I mean, you just, it's been the majority of the season at this point. You know, they keep adding up and adding up without really getting anybody back from any of these injuries.

You know, they've gone through the different stretches in the schedule. And, I mean, just look around the league and the teams, other teams that are experiencing injuries like this. I mean, look at the Dodgers and the resources that they have from a money standpoint. They built maybe the deepest roster and all of baseball over the offseason. They've got one of the best and deepest farm systems, and they're feeling their injuries already. And the Astros keep plugging along. So the conventional wisdom in my common sense says, yes, it should catch up to them at some point. But honestly, at this point, maybe it doesn't.

I really can't figure it out. All right. So I'm going to ask you this for the second to last time. If you were having a glass of wine with General Manager Dana Brown, and he said, all right, Bogie, help me out here. What do I need to go get? This is the second to the last time I asked you this year. What would you tell him? Well, I think it's changed now.

You know, my initial thinking for, you know, the first month or so leading up to the deadline was the relief on the offensive standpoint is going to come from within, right? That's going to be when Yoron gets back. That's going to be whenever, if Jake Myers comes back. But now I'm now with Peretti's down and, you know, we don't have a timeline on it, but it's probably not, you know, going to be just a week or two. I think you might need a bat more than pitching at this point. It looks like Eric Getty's close. Christian Javier looks like he's progressing pretty well. Luis Garcia is a little bit behind them.

So, you know, maybe that maybe, I think the need has shifted more from just shoring up pitching. And you can always use more pitching to you've got to add to the lineup somewhere. If it's a long-term thing for Paredes, maybe it's somebody who can slot right in that third base or maybe somebody who has some sort of, you know, positional versatility that you can float around. I think it's a bat now. It's probably more offensive driven than it was last week at this time before Paretis went down.

Great stuff as always, friend. Thank you very much for the time. And we'll talk again next week, which will be the 30th. And that'll be one delay from the trade deadline. Thanks, Mogi, for the time as always. All right. Thanks, guys.