The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian Bogusevic Talks About The Recent Success Astros, What Should We Expect Moving Forward

Episode Date: April 30, 2025

Brian Bogusevic Talks About The Recent Success In The Astros and What We Should Expect Moving Forward

11 o'clock. Sports Talk 790. Let's spend 10 quality minutes with our good friend Brian Bogusevich, who is a television star on the Space City Home Network. And he's a star here on Sports Talk 790 on a weekly basis. He joins us every Wednesday at 11 o'clock. Hey, Brian, we were just talking about this a few minutes ago. The Astros, look, it's been a, it's been better, obviously, but it's about a 500 team so far, give or take a couple of games. But the amount of wins against quality opponents, this has been pretty stout. You knock off the match, you've got the Padres, and you've taken the first two games against the best team, at least record-wise, the American League.

Yeah, I think it's a very encouraging thing that some of their best ball has been played against the better teams. you know, oftentimes when we see teams coming in to play the Astros and you're looking at, you know, what have they done over the past week or two? You know, a lot of times teams who look like they're hot, you know, have come off a series where they've been playing Colorado or the White Sox or somebody of that nature. So when you're beating good opponents, when you're beating teams that, you know, pitch very well, hit very well and kind of have all-around game, I think it's a sign that number one, the Astros are starting to play better. but really we know what kind of team is in there and when it all comes around what they can be and that's a team that can stand toe to toe with anybody.

I don't think there was any question that that was in there. It was just a question of when are we going to see it and then how consistently can we see it once it comes out? And the fact I also love it, not only are you beating the good teams, but you fell behind in both games against Detroit and put together these crooked number innings. I think we've seen more crooked number innings in the Astros in the last week, Brian,

maybe you saw in the first three or four weeks of the season. Yeah, it's nice to see that there are different paths to victory for the team. You know, it seemed like the wins that they were getting early. It was, you know, we're going to have one inning where we score a couple of runs, and then, you know, we're going to basically turn it over to the pitchers and try to hang on for dear life. To see the fact that they can extend leads and add on late, you know, have an inning where they score on a big hit to drive in a couple runs, but then maybe get another hit or two later like they did yesterday, or just, you know, we can get down early,

and if our pitcher lets us hang around, we can go beat up on a bullpen and have a win. You know, you've got to be able to win multiple ways. And I think even when we see the best version of this team, it's going to be very pitching forward, and they're going to be a pitching and defense first team, but they've got to be able to outslug people every once in a while. And I think it's nice to see that the offense can kind of,

lead the way when need be. Brian Bogus-Evick with us here on Sports Talk 790, and there's been some shuffling in the lineup. Let's just start philosophically first. What do you think about how big of a deal it is for a team with lineup construction and also for a player individually where you're going to be in the lineup?

I think it is a big deal, and it isn't a big deal. It's not a big deal in that you're going to find some magic formula and everything's just going to fall into place, right? The way that the offense is going to start being the best version of itself is going to be, you know, a collection of individuals getting it going themselves. And that's not just going to happen because if you put them in a certain order. However, you know, doing things on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis to maximize what is going right is always a good thing.

and also, you know, doing things to get guys a little bit more comfortable. You know, the thing with Al Tube, if he felt like he was being rushed coming in in the top half of the first inning to hit, then, you know, make him feel comfortable and maybe that gets him going a little bit. You know, it's playing mind games as well as playing, you know, matchup type of games. And that's, you know, kind of the art of being a manager is you've got to manage people. and it's not just, okay, what do the numbers look like on paper say that it should be? I think it's also, you know, telling to the quality of people they have in the clubhouse that everybody's open to it.

You know, there are a lot of teams and a lot of players across the league where if you start messing with guys and, you know, move a guy from first to third or from third to sixth in the order or whatever, you know, it'll put them into pout mode. and that is not the case with anybody in this team. And I think, you know, the number one reason for that is that Jose Altuve is the guy who's most open to whatever needs to be done. So it's nice to see that the players are giving the coaches the leeway to go and move some things around. And one of the things that's been moving around is Christian Walker bumped down. He's been hitting a lot better. We're seeing some home runs from him as well. What are you seeing from his approach and swings that is making this improvement?

confidence. The swing doesn't necessarily look any different than it did. The swing decisions certainly look better. And a lot of that has to do with trusting himself and just trusting that he's fine. You know, when you're looking up at your batting average and it says 150, you know, it just puts that doubt in your mind of like, man, maybe I'm not seeing it well. Maybe my swing isn't going to be there if the ball does show up in the middle of the plate. But if you all of a sudden believe that you're going to recognize and swing at good pitches and take tough pitches. And you believe that if you swing at a heater down the middle, your barrel is going to get there, you know, all of a sudden you can be freed up a little bit.

And he looks very free. And the swings that he's taking, obviously the balls that he's hitting and driving, they look good. You know, he's had some balls that he's, you know, fouled off, that he's taken really aggressive, you know, convicted types of swings. He doesn't look like he's feeling for anything anymore, which is where he was for first, you know, 15, 20 games when he was, when he was searching for something. And it looks like he found whatever it was he was searching for. Bogey, the roster construction, you know, there have been a lot of managers over the years that have always tried to get at least one

left in their bullpen. Some teams go without it. I know the Astros, even during part of their heyday, would go without a left-handed reliever. The Astros have bucked that trend with all the guys that can go from the South Paul side of things. First of all, are you intrigued by that? And is, are we going to see a new trend? Because it feels like to me, me was still predominantly a right-handed hitting lineup like the Detroit had. You can definitely use that to your, or I should say left-hand hitting lineup. You can use that to your advantage in terms of being able to try to mix things up a little bit, especially if you've got teams that you'll be coming up with a primary left-hand-handed lineup.

Yeah, it'll certainly play into your favor when you have those lefty dominant lineups that you're facing. I've always been a proponent of you want the best guys, you know, and of course you want different looks and different matchups, but, you know, not at the sake of quality stuff. And they were kind of in a situation coming out of spring training where it was, let's just take our best guys and we'll figure it out from there. Now, you know, you get the four lefties, you know, hater, don't even put him into that conversation. His role is, you know, closer, we know what that is. It's been a really positive thing that both Brian King and

Stephen O'Kert have been good against Ritees, especially O'Kert, you know, the kind of book on him coming in was really good against lefties, you know, don't know how he's going to be against righties. He's dominated both. So now all of a sudden you don't need those guys to be matchup type pitchers. They're more leverage type pitchers and then throw Susan in the midst where you can, you know, spot him into places where you like him for different parts of the lineup. So it gives Joe a lot of options to play the handedness matchup and the platoon matchup.

but what it's also been is Brian King and Stephen O'Ker kind of emerging as guys that we can lean on at the end of games also. So, yeah, best guys are going to get the biggest innings, and they've got guys who are making cases to be those guys. We're about to see a six-man rotation coming up with a limit number of off days, and whether that's Blue Ball, who gets a start is in that group, or whether Lance McCullors takes that spot. How do you massage that? You're going to be down an arm in the bullpen. what are your general thoughts about a six-man rotation and how much do you think that Joe's got to differently manage because of the fact he's got one less guy to go to? Yeah, it becomes a necessary thing, you know, when you have these stretches of, you know, 16, 17 games in a row and then it adds up, you know, it's like a 25 and 24 days or 24 games and 25 days, whatever.

That takes a toll on a pitching staff. And especially when you have a guy, you know, Wesnowski, he threw like 80 innings last year. He's not going to be able to throw 160, 180 innings. So you're going to have to massage it at some point. It all comes down to what kind of lengths are you getting out of your starters. And with, you know, Hunter Brown seemingly being a lock for six plus innings, Frumber's been that way for most of the last three years.

If you can consistently get those guys deep to where you're not overextending the guys in the bullpen, then you'll be fine. If all of a sudden it starts, it starts, you know, you get a three-inning start, a two-inning start, where it throws the bullpen into flocks, and all of a sudden you're eating up innings and you're having to bring in Josh Hater in a situation to where you just need somebody to throw.

That's where you get yourself into trouble. But it was going to happen at some point because of A, scheduling, and B, just trying to limit some innings for guys. And, you know, maybe you're going to have to lean into pitchers every once in a while a starter, you know, you're going to have to push to 100 or 105. You know, I would especially point to Hunter and Frumber as guys who you can lean into a little bit more heavily.

But, yeah, it's something that you know is going to have to happen at some point in the season, and you just hope your starters can hold the line for it. Cam Smith with the day off yesterday, Brian, what have you been seeing from him? He had that big two home run game, but things have slowed for him since. Yeah, it's still a work in progress. You know, it's still a lot of the same things that he's been working on from the start of the season, right? He's trying to get a little more rhythm pre-pitch, which will allow him to get started on time, which will allow the bat head to get out front.

You know, when your primary focus as a hitter is I'm trying to get the bat out and get to the fastball, you can also become susceptible to breaking balls. And sometimes you can get caught in this little in between where you're not quite out there to really get on the heater, but at the same time you're sped up enough to where you're not laying off the breaking balls. So this is why it's really difficult to learn at the Major League level because you're not going to get mistakes to help you out along the way. You're not going to get, you know, guys, you know, a start day from a guy who doesn't really belong.

You're just getting nasty stuff every day. So he is better. It is much better than it was at the start of the season in terms of where his contact point is and where he can hit the ball, you know, driving the ball in the middle of the field. But he's still trying to get going a little bit and get that bad hat out front. All right. Late word coming in for Let's You Run. Lance McCuller is going to start on Sunday.

Boy, this has been a long, winding, confusing. aggravating road for LMJ. He's going to finally get the opportunity to get back on that mountain for the first time and quite some time. This is, I, I'll be honest with you. I don't know that I can think of anybody who's had that much time. You know,

anybody who's down for more than a year plus, it's almost like you never see them come back. And as big of a win as this is for the team and the organization, you just got to be happy for the guy. I mean, what it's like to come back from injury? what it's like to rehab, go down to Florida and rehab on your own, show up at the field and do all your work before the rest of the team is there.

It sucks, and it's miserable, it's depressing. So I'm just happy for Lance that he gets to come back and get back out there on the mound and, you know, add into the fact that if he's right, that's a damn good arm that you're adding into that rotation. So that's exciting news. Bogey, thank you for the visit. As always, great job on the Space City stuff. I look forward to visiting with you again next Wednesday.

Enjoy the rest of your week. All right, guys. Thank you. Brian Bogus Epic with us here every Wednesday.