The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian Bogusevic Talks Recent Games & Astros Setup After Trade Deadline

Episode Date: August 6, 2025

Brian Bogusevic Talks Recent Games & Astros Setup After Trade Deadline

It's going to be me and bogey for the next 10 right here on Sports Talk 790. Bogie, as we've talked about for 9 million times, the baseball season can be a roller coaster ride. You go up to Boston, you watch them lose three games. You go to Miami. The Marlins beat the Yankees three straight in their home field, draw huge crowds. The next two nights the Astros come in town. And the Astros have beaten them up pretty good. This season has not made a lot of sense for many reasons.

and I think this last five days is a great example of that. No, I totally agree. You know, my first kind of thought and reaction to, you know, the last week, week and a half, is kind of like, let's not get too high on, you know, beating up on the nationals and the Marlins. But if you look at what the Marlins have been over the course of, you know, a good chunk of six to eight weeks and what they were doing coming in to this series, you know, the Astros have looked pretty good against a team that's been playing really, well. And I think it's the way that they've looked. It's the offense. It's, you know, kind of a

different looking team post-trade deadline than we had seen throughout the course of much of the season. You know, some of that is addition. Some of that is, you know, Pena coming back healthy. But I think it's kind of rounding into form. It's certainly not the team that you think of when you say, okay, what's our best? But it's definitely a team that is different for the better. than it was maybe three or four weeks ago. It is amazing to me. Look, this team, I would say more times a nod has been offensively challenged. But there were a night in particular in Boston.

We get 14 hits. And so that's supposed to win you baseball games. And that just didn't happen. There's one thing about getting on base, another one getting into scoring. There's really no rhyme or reason to why that is, except for, you know, sometimes your heart of the lineup guys don't come through. and sometimes your seventh, eight, nine guys come up with the worst possible times. What is your take on how this team at least schizophrenically the last 60 days has been so up and down offensively?

Yeah, I mean, when you look at the runners in scoring position numbers, whether it be for an individual player or a team or whatever, I, for one, I do not, I try as hard as I can to not diminish hitting with runners in scoring position because it's not the same as every other. at bat, right? A pitcher is not going to pitch you the same with runners in second and third and one out as they are with two outs and nobody on. That's a given. You have to be a better hitter to hit with runners in scoring position. However, when you're looking at over the course of time, over the course of the season, the greatest predictor of can you hit with runners and scoring position is just can you hit in general? Are you a contact oriented hitter or team? Do you hit for average as a team or as an individual hitter? And when you have a, you have a

have situations where, you know, you're racking up a ton of hits, you're racking up a ton of base runners. Maybe for a game or a couple of games, you don't drive those runners in, that can just be attributed to it's just baseball. Sometimes you hit a line drive at somebody with two outs and, you know, you don't score. But over time, if you're doing the right things, eventually you will hit with runners in scoring position and therefore score a lot of runs. So when I look at a team, this team post-trade deadline and what the lineup has been doing in terms of just volume of quality at bat, volume of guys on base. I think it's a better option, a better chance of scoring a lot of runs consistently than it was,

you know, not that too far in the past. Brian Bogus-Covic with us here on 7-90 for his regular Wednesday visit. Bogie, you played with Jose for a very short time, very young part of his career towards end of yours, and then you've watched him as a broadcaster and as a guy that goes to the ballpark in season firsthand. He's still racking up hits. he's going to get to 3,000 hits. It's going to take a lot of work, but I think he's going to get there. But just when people want to all of a sudden say, all right, here comes a significant downturn.

And maybe Jose has had that defensively. But his OPS is above 800, yet again, he's hitting home runs. He walks into the ballpark with two hits per night. Have you noticed anything about his swing changing? Now, obviously, it's probably slower than it was as a rookie, but he's still getting on base. He's still making solid contact. Is there any noticeable difference than maybe even seven or eight years ago, the Hose L2Ve swing that you see now? I think maybe the one thing you could say is that when he's, you know, hunting for power,

he has to become a little bit more pull dominant than he was in the past. And in order to do so, maybe have to have to guess or cheat a little bit more. But that's, I mean, that's a very negligible thing. Nothing with the swing, nothing with the approach. I think at some point, especially when you're talking about this lineup functioning as it should, you know, with everybody back where it should, and he doesn't have to be a power hitter type of guy or maybe later in his career when he doesn't have to be that. He still has the ability to rack up a ton of hits.

He can still, if he wanted to just spray balls the other way and get base hits, he could easily do that. But he's trying to be more of a complete hitter, trying to hit for power, trying to be a middle of the lineup guy. Maybe he has to sacrifice a little bit of risk of swing and miss in order to do that. But, I mean, that's just hitting. Sometimes you've got to give a little bit to get a little bit. And I think that in terms of just pure hitting ability, he's still every bit as good as he ever was. Bogey, we saw the Astros go with an opener yesterday. And then we saw A.J. Blueball get his second appearance in a major league uniform.

And, I mean, he was hit 97-90-in of the gun. I don't know if that's going to be a regular thing for him. but for a guy that goes from his first start many months ago to a guy who got passed up by at least two pitchers, if not more, to get this opportunity again, it looked like he was just very comfortable that the way of the world was off his shoulders

and he could just rear back and get people out. Yeah, you know, a lot can happen over the course of whatever it's been three months down in the minor leagues and getting work in. And he's pitched a lot of innings down there. And there have been, you know, tweaks made and adjustments made. And, you know, if you're sitting, when you're sitting down in AAA and you're seeing guys get called up, get called up, get called up, and it's not you, and it's not you. It'll create a sense of urgency. And it'll, you know, kind of push you to get better and kind of push you to when you do get that opportunity, try to make a good impression.

And I think he certainly did that from a stuff standpoint. I mean, you can go a long way with high-end stuff. And when you're, you know, there's a lot of room for error when you're pitching when it's 97, 98 miles an hour. And it's certainly different than a lot, you know, a lot of guys that we've seen come up. It's been lesser stuff, but more of a plan, more of an approach for pitching. You know, having a guy who can come up and say, hey, if we need, you know, two, three, four innings where somebody can just go out there and try to blow guys away, here's our option and differentiate yourself a little bit. I'm assuming that you probably in the back of your mind

thought the transition for Cardl's going from short to third base will be a piece of cake and it feels like it certainly has been. Yeah, when you're that talented at a shortstop, I mean, there are some nuances to third base. It's a little bit different footwork. Maybe a couple different arm angles on throws. But, I mean, if you can play

shortstop at the level that he plays shortstop, you can slide right over to third base and honestly probably pretty much anywhere else in the diamond. Urius gets an opportunity makes the most of it. You've got now I think another additional utility guy, not so much pressure on Dubon to play every single day.

It feels like the lineup is coming together, clearly, because guys are back and noticeably Jeremy would be the first one on that list. Ross and I want to do this in a few minutes and we may have time to do so. We're hoping that at some point Yordon gets into play on this and if he

does, that's the missing piece to this lineup being filthy 1 to 7, right, at this point, you think? Oh, absolutely. I mean, he, as good as other guys have been, as nice as the additions are, Yordan coming back healthy and being the hitter that he is, everything then revolves around him. You build your lineup around him, you know, teams game plan around him. It's also, you know, another left-handed bat that has to be accounted for. And now you're looking at the top half of the batting order being righty-lefty, right-y-lefty.

So, you know, looking down the road to a seventh, eighth, ninth inning playing matchups, makes it really difficult for opposing managers. So, yeah, I mean, you're looking at a lineup that really at some point is going to be, you know, one through eight, one through nine really solid because, you know, you've got guys who, for a good chunk of time, we're hitting, you know, Taylor Shremel hit a bunch of leadoff. He's going to be maybe your nine-hole hitter. You got, you know, Cam Smith sliding into the seven-hole when he was hitting fourth for a good chunk of time.

Victor Caratini, when he's in the lineup, he was your best hitter for, you know, nearly a month during the course of the season. So, yeah, you're looking at some real lengths and, you know, yiners getting it going. So all of a sudden, you're looking at a lineup that's really deep and really dangerous in every spot. Last question, bogey. Last night, it happened in back-to-back innings

once for the Astros and once for the Marlins. There was massive miscommunication between the two teams center filters and the right filters. You have played out field. Take us through the protocol on that. And was it strange to you that it happened in back-to-back innings? I think that's just a fluky thing.

Look, I've played down there in Miami. I don't think it was a function of the crowd being too loud. And the guy's not being able to hear it. Right. So here's the protocol, right? Center fielder has priority over everybody on the field, and then outfielders have priority over infielders. And when you get into that little Bermuda triangle where there's a center field or a right fielder

and an infielder going out, you've got to, you know, you've got to be loud. so that, you know, the other players can hear you, but also you've got to know who's calling it. If you're the right fielder coming in and you hear, I got it, you've got to know if that's your second baseman or if that's your center fielder and whether you need to call him off or lay back. And, you know, you've got some guys in there who, you know, Duby hasn't played a ton of center field.

You've got Urias who's not used to playing with other guys. So you've just got a little bit going on to where guys aren't totally comfortable. But, yeah, it's one of those things where, it's difficult, especially on a ball that's just on the edge of range where you're not going to be camped underneath it and you're comfortable to take your eyes off the ball and look down and say, okay, is my second basement camp or is that my center field or coming over? When everybody's looking up and you just have to listen and know the voices of who's calling it, you kind of need some guys who you know their voices. And it's just one of those things where they haven't worked together a whole lot. Last question. I don't know how many times you played at Yankee Stadium over your career because you were a nationally guy,

primarily. But let me ask you this. You've got a bunch of young men that'll be going there for the very first time. And it feels like to me, especially if the Rangers continue to beat up on the Yankees, that the crowd may be more angry at the Yankees than they are at the Astros because they are in a massive slump. What advice would you give when you go to a hustle facility like that for some young men that may not be at Yankee City, but maybe for the very first time? Yeah, first of all, I think you hit it on the head. Like that that team is reeling right now. So know that there's a heck of a lot more pressure on them to perform in front of that crowd than there is on you to perform in front of that crowd. But anytime you're going to, you know, one of those historical stadiums or, you know, guys who are in the big leagues for the first time going to a new stadium, I always think get out there early. First day that you're there, go out, even if you're not doing early work, walk around the stadium, just get comfortable. Look up into the stand.

See how high the third deck is. Take a look at the lights. Just get familiar with your surroundings. And be in awe at 2 o'clock in the afternoon so that at 7 o'clock, you know, it can turn into somewhat of just baseball, even though, you know, first time at Yankee Stadium, first time at Fenway, Wrigley, it is a little bit different. But try to get all of that out before the game. Great stuff, as always, friend. Talk to you next week. Thank you for the time. All right, cool. See you.

You got Brian Bogus Civic with us every Wednesday at 11 o'clock.