The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian Bogusevic Talks Cam Smith and The Opening Day Roster

Episode Date: March 26, 2025

Brian Bogusevic Talks Cam Smith and The Opening Day Roster

Sports Talk 790. You know, the show was so successful last week. We said, you know what, Brian Bogus-Vic? We're going to put him on again. Every single Wednesday at 11 o'clock. Radies, true to roof. Oh, my goodness. People love Brian Bogusivik.

He's on Space City Network. He's done some Astros Radio, and he's our friend on Wednesdays at 11. Bogie, before we get to what's going on right now, we saw obviously Camp Smith get the announcement from Joe Espada. How did you find out you were getting a call to the show? Oh, so I was a September call-up my first time. So, you know, that last day of August game, everybody's kind of in a AAA clubhouse looking around like, oh, who's it going to be? And I got taken out of the game, you know, after like the fifth inning or something.

So I was like, okay, that's weird. It's probably going to happen. And then got called into the manager's office after the game. And he said, you and, you know, I don't know, there's probably four or five of us. You guys are all going up to Houston tomorrow morning. And you're like, where's my girlfriend? water in the room with me so I can kiss her and hug and congratulate. Yeah, you know what?

They didn't do that for me. I was not... Oh, I hear bitterness in your voice right now. I can guarantee you that. I definitely hear it your voice. No, I, you know, those things are... It's such a cool thing. You know, everybody, obviously, that has it happened to them.

They remember it. And if you can share it with people, even better. But no, I was not on the Cam Smith level of let's bring everybody in for it. So, we've been kind of debunked. about what this move means. Is it, because it could be all the above. So let me just throw a variety of scenarios at you. Is it an indictment against which they really think of chas playing every day in right field?

Is this, this kid is so hot. We got to make sure to give them in every opportunity to be the future right fielder. Is it a combination of both? Is it, hey, I want this trade with Kyle Tucker to have immediate impact. And with that being said, bringing up one of the guys, along with Parker Wisnowski, who's going to be one of the start. this once again shows that me as a general manager, Dana Brown, got great value in return for giving away a five-to-a-tool player like Kyle Tucker. Yeah, I mean, the answer is probably a little bit of everything. Yeah.

But in regards to CAM, individually, I think there's kind of two distinct ways of looking at it. And it's number one, is this what's best for the team? And I think that's the easiest question to answer. If you watch him playing throughout the spring, if you just watch how the competition in-house played out throughout the course of the spring, it's very easy decision to say he gives us the best chance being our everyday right fielder. The question that's harder to answer is, is this what's best for Cam long term? Is he going to be able to get the proper development, proper development track and become the player that he's going to be as quickly as needed? at the big league level. And that's a much more difficult question to answer because it's not necessarily a baseball

question. You know, it's not breaking down his swing and seeing how he fares against certain types of pitching. It's a personal question. Is he going to be able to handle the pressure? Is he going to be able to, you know, go through a slump and inevitably have a level of failure at some point during the season and do that under a huge microscope and have a lot more people noticing and asking about it.

And can he handle that and not have that be an impediment to him helping the team? And that's just getting to know the person, Cam Smith. And I think over the course of the spring, that was something that impressed, you know, the Astros people more than the player that they got was the person that they got. And, you know, I think at the end of the day, they've got to a point to where they were comfortable saying, we can push it on this person, not necessarily the player is ready. Can you fast track learning right field when you're doing it in a major league game? I mean, that's a lot for him to inherit the responsibility of his young bat and his

great spring. And oh, by the way, he's going to have to play as much defense as he is taking his 4-A-beats or five plate appearances per game. Yes, yes and no. Yes, you can fast track it in the organization in the team and the player recognizes that it's a new position. So we're going to go out there and we're just going to, you know, early work the hell out of you. And we're going to be out there every day and it's going to be, okay, we're going to do balls off the wall today. We're going to be, you know, fun goes down the line.

I'm going to want you charging balls. We're just going to work on something every single day. And he is, you know, young enough that that shouldn't be a problem. He's going to be able to go out there and do the work. And I've seen it before. And when J.D. Martinez first got up here, the bat was way ahead of the defense. And Dave Clark had him out there just working him to death every day to get him ready. The flip side of that is at some point, certainly playing the outfield, you just have to see live reps.

You know, balls off of a fungo are not the same as balls off of the bat. You know, a fly ball at 3 o'clock doesn't look the same as a fly ball at 730 with a full stadium. So there are going to be growing pains. There are going to be things that can only be seen for a first time at game speed. And, you know, there are going to be times when it doesn't look great. But that's part of betting on the person is can he go out there and do a fly ball and, number one, put it behind him and go have a good at bat in the bottom half of the inning. And number two, say, okay, what was this scenario?

What did I do wrong? What do I need to do to fix it? And then fix it the next time, not the next. 10 times. And that's part of betting on the person as much as the player. We saw Cam Smith struggle with the spin of a ball off of a lefty bat. We saw

Altuvei struggle with the spin of a ball off a righty bat. Is there a good way to practice that and get better at that, Brian, or is it just you have to be in the game? To see it at game speed and game scenario, it can't be simulated. You know, you can go

out there and play balls off the bat in batting practice, but it's just not quite the same. I mean, especially when you have that last little bit of adrenaline. And, you know, the ball, I guess what was that Monday night that Camus played at the wall, you know, he saw that ball going back over his head. So his first thought is, okay, I got to get back to the wall. Right?

It's really difficult to play a ball at the wall. The first thing you have to do is find the wall. And he had his mindset on, I'm getting back to the wall, but then forgot about the fact that, okay, that's a righty hitting that slice into the corner. So he got back to the wall and also the ball ran away from him. So being able to juggle all those things at once, at game speed, you know, not thinking about

it, but reacting to it, it takes game reps and game experience. You know, it can be simulated to a degree, but it's just not it. Brian Bogusov with us here on Sports Talk 790. And Brian, it's kind of taken the

back burner now with Jose Altovae and left field. And we talked about it last week with the learning curves of how long this is going to take. And so what are your expectations of both of them early on in the field? Expect to every once in a while see something that's like, oh, man, you know, there's going to be mistakes. Just understand that.

But at the same time, I think very quickly, routine plays will become routine. And especially when you're thinking about Altuve and left field, all of a sudden, the area that he has to cover gets shrunk. When you're at Dyken Park playing left field, basically all you have to do is play everything in front of you, and if it's going to be over your head, just turn around and play it off the wall. You don't have the element of going back on balls, so it really simplifies what you have to do. And, you know, thinking about Jose out there, his default setting is, I go for it, right? That's how he hits.

You know, when he's not comfortable hitting, he just starts swinging. when he has a decision to make on the basis, it's I'm going and then I'll deal with the consequences. And in the outfield, that's not necessarily what your default setting should be. You almost want to play things a little bit conservatively. And being in that short left field where, look, I'm going to play everything in front of me. And if it's off the wall, play it, throw it back in, it's a double, you know, just don't turn him into triples. And once he gets that understanding and that feeling where I make the root. he plays avoid the disaster plays, it'll look fine out there and left.

Bogie, we've spent so much time talking about this outfield for the first two weeks of our visit. Let's do this. I'm going to ask you, give me two or three storylines that you're curious about for the first month of the season that don't involve the new left fielder and the new right fielder. Yeah. Yeah, there's actually other players on the team besides. I know. We haven't talked about them, but they're out there for sure.

I mean, the big thing is in the bullpen, you know, eighth inning, ninth inning, we're good, a brave hater, as good as there is. You know, what's in the middle, especially early in the season when starters aren't going to be pushed to go really deep into games. What's going to happen in the seventh, sixth and maybe even fifth inning sometimes? Last year, Taylor Scott had the big breakout year. He was a huge addition. who's going to be that guy this year or those guys because right now there's a lot of unproven arms and a lot of guys trying to bounce back

and maybe take on larger roles than they have in the past. So that's the biggest thing for me is what's going to bridge the strength of the starting rotation and the strength of the back of the bullpen. And the other thing is who are going to be the guys to take the big next step? And three guys that I'm looking at, Number one, Jeremy Pena, just can he have that big breakout offensive year, really from a power standpoint?

Can he consistently drive the ball in the air and become, you know, a 25 home run type guy? Because he's strong enough to do it. It's just swing consistency. I think Yiner Diaz can be a monster offensively. Like I am as bullish on him offensively as anybody. And I think Spencer Arrigetti is going to kind of be that hinge of the starting rotation. Does he make the jump and become, oh, wow, that's kind of top of the rotation type of stuff? Or is he still trying to get his feet underneath him and just be a guy who throws out solid starts, you know, on a day-to-day basis?

It's a great point, Bogie, because I have not hidden the fact. I don't think Ross has either. We haven't asked you. I think this is Frommberg's last year as an Aster. I think when you have no sort of contract extension talks in spring training, that's the light going off going, you know what? they're willing to lose him because I don't want to put a lot of money into his piggy bank for a long-term investment. So I think we can definitely take a look at Hunter Brown and Araggeti and look at Rinald Blanco because we might be meeting a ace number one guy one year from now. No, I mean, if you just look at, you know, the last, whatever, it's been six or seven off seasons, they've had guys who are, you know, huge parts of the team get at or near free agency.

And then they're gone. That's just kind of the way it has been. And, you know, from a player's standpoint, once you get a certain amount of track record built up and you get close enough to free agency, why wouldn't you go out there and put yourself on the open market? So, yeah, it seems likely that that might be the case for Frumber. So who's the next guy? You know, Hunter had the huge breakout second half last year. If he continues to be that guy, he moves to the top of the rotation and then who's slotting in behind him. I mean, Aragetti's stuff, if you just look at the individual pitches and the profile of the pitches, it's all nasty.

If he can put it all together and have plans of attack with all of his pitches working off of one another, all of a sudden you've got another top of the rotation type of guy. Bogey, great stuff is always looking forward to seeing you the ballpark in the not-to-distant future. When are we going to see you on Space City for the first time? Tomorrow, opening day. They bring up the heavy hitters on opening day. I like that. Big guns, baby.

Good for you. You like this media thing? Obviously, you do. I mean, did you ever envision 15 years ago when you were still playing this was going to be a part of your post-baseball life? No. Honestly, I never thought about it until after I was finished playing and the opportunity presented itself. But I think it's just an awesome way to stay around the game and stay involved in the game and, you know, find a way to get yourself out to the ballpark every day. Sounds great.

Bogie, thanks for the visit. We'll talk again next week. All right, thanks, guys. You got it, Brian Bogus Civic with us. Wednesday at 11 o'clock right here on these airwaves we call Sports Talks. I'm a good stuff there from Bogie.