The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian McTaggart Discusses Astros Early Season Struggles

Episode Date: May 1, 2026

Brian McTaggart Discusses Astros Early Season Struggles

It is a busy, anything goes Friday here on Sports Talk 7-90, and we missed our friend Brian McTaggart yesterday because of the double dip, so we get 10-quarter minutes with him here on a Friday here on Sports Talk 7-90. Tags, let's be brutally honest, 333 baseball, probably not going to last too much longer and keep people excited about this town. But after the disappointment of the opening game of that double-hutter yesterday, the Astrobatts woke up and at least were able to get a split out of those two games yesterday against the Orioles. Yeah, I mean, you still can't argue about the way they're swinging the bats.

I mean, I think they out hit the Orioles, what, 2712 yesterday or something like that in the two games. So it's just coming down to their pitching just hasn't been good enough. I mean, it's been that way really since after the first homestand of the season. So, hey, it's May. It's a new month. Maybe they can just put this behind them. But, you know, they're playing a Red Sox team that is equally as in trouble right now. They're at the bottom of their division as well.

so maybe they swept them already. So maybe this is a chance for them to get right and come home and face the Dodgers. Oh, God. That makes me sick to saying that. Your thoughts generally speaking about the Phillies making a change, the Red Sox making a change, and naturally the riders are on baseball.

We're like, who's next? And unfortunately, the Astros are on that mix and that we're asking for endorsement because I think, you know, Joe has done everything he could, especially with the fact that pitching staff has been such a mess with all the injuries. But are you noticing a trend in baseball and all the years you've covered that

leashes are getting a lot shorter even for guys that have been very successful, like the two managers just got let go this past week. Yeah, I think so. And I think this is the time of year where we start seeing, you know, stuff like managers getting fired like we have so far. I mean, it was, I think, early May last year when

two or three, two or three managers got fired, but I don't think it's an NBA levels yet where it seems like, you know, you have one bad year and you're out of there. It's complicated because they've had so many injuries. You know, I don't think there's anything Joe could have done differently.

I mean, I think if he has a healthy team last year to make the playoffs, if they have a healthy team this year, they're certainly in better shape than they are now. So I'm not sure what a difference, you know, making a change would do at this point. Jim Crane has never done that kind of thing in the middle of the season anyway. So there's still a long way to go. And, you know, let's see if they can slowly start getting healthy. You know, Pena could be back next week. maybe they can start digging their way out of this

because the division again looks like it's pretty mediocre. So all's not lost. They still have, what, 130 games left? So a chance to, you know, it's barely made first. So in another month, this could look a little bit different. So I don't think we're to that point with any, you know, making it change with the Astros. And I don't think it would make much of a difference. I don't either.

I don't either, not at all. But you mentioned the bats, Yardon Alvarez. I mean, if you were to take an MVP race, he tops on the list of the American League side of things so far? Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think what's going to be difficult is if they do end up having a poor season and they finish in last place and he has, he puts up these kind of numbers and hits 40 plus homers.

Is he, you know, is he going to get votes on a bad team? You know, that's probably going to hurt his case a little bit. But he's already got 12 homers, which his career high is 37. So he's almost a third of the way to his career high through April. and he's mashed in Boston in his career. A couple years ago, he had a four-hit game here. Next game had a three-hit game. He was injured last year when they came to Fenway,

but this is a park where he seized the ball really well. So he's got a chance to fatten those numbers again. But, yeah, if he can keep this up, he's got a chance to put his name to the top of some Astros record books. You know, I think Bagwell's single-season home-run records, if he can stay healthy, is something that I think could be in jeopardy because he's on a pace right now to hit 50 plus home runs.

Brian McTaggart, MLB.com, Astros.com with us here on Sports Talk 790. As we do often, Brian, I'll ask you a state of the rotation yesterday. I mean, before the wheels fall off, I mean, Lambert took no hitter into the fourth inning and was looking pretty solid. And you got a quality start from Lance McCuller's Jr. But his Velo is down. It feels like even when guys are on the feeling like they're on the right track, something goes wrong. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it was a quality start for Lance.

Did have the nine strikeouts, but yeah, the Velo down is not ideal. I know Lance said he would, you know, substitute the movement on his pitches for the Velo. And, you know, maybe he's still, you know, trying to figure out how to make things work with the stuff that he has nowadays. But, yeah, nothing really feels good about the rotation other than Arogetti, who's won all three of his starts. Lambert was like, like he said, was good, but not great. They just need guys to get deeper. And I think the guy that really needs to step it up is Burroughs tonight. And it seems like he's really close to me to giving them the kind of start.

Then he'd go in six or seven innings. He just, you know, a couple of starts to go, he sent down, I think, the first 14 and then things kind of fell apart on them with some walks and stuff. So, yeah, they just got to start getting guys going deeper. And, you know, maybe EMI comes back after one more rehab start. Certainly did not look good in double A. the other night. I didn't see it just looking at the line. So lots of issues in the rotation. And those are really, really hard to fix. But that's kind of just, you know, where they're at

this point. All right. And also becoming a weekly theme. What's going on with Brian and Brayu? Velo was down. It did tick up. But of course, overall the outing, not what you wanted to see. Yeah, still walking some guys, you know, giving up some hard contact. I know they're trying everything they can to try to get them ironed out. And I mean, you're pretty much pitching a reliever. short because you can't really, you know, trust him in any tight games and they play a lot of tight games. So I'm not sure where that's going to lead. I know it's very frustrating for Brian. And it's also, you know, a walk year for him. So, you know, he could be a free agent at the end of the year. So, you know, that's got to be in his head as well. But certainly they, again, if they're

going to get this thing turned around, you know, pitching is where it's got to happen. And getting Brian of Brayu back to the old Brian of Brayu is as important as anything they have. including, you know, getting Hader back maybe later this month. So they'll just have to keep running them out there until he figures it out. We talked about VILO a couple times in our conversation here. Brian, when you hear a guy goes from 93 to 91 or 96 to 94, is it just in our nature to get warm, worried about whether or not there is arm issues or can just guys be trying something different and or maybe guys just off a tick on a particular start or an appearance?

I mean, I think the number one thing is, is he healthy? And I mean, and those are questions. And I mean, Brian was asked that question directly. You know, after I think his last outing in Minutemay that didn't go well, are you healthy? And he said yes. And so I thought it was really interesting that he said that he doesn't have a lot of confidence in some of his pitches.

You know, he's not throwing many strikes. So I think that's playing into his VILA a little bit. You know, maybe there is some kind of physical thing there that we just don't know about. I think from a color is it's just a matter. of, you know, all the surgeries he's been through basically a couple of Tommy Johns and the wear and tear on his elbow. And he's just trying to figure out different ways to get guys out at this point. And he's never going to be throwing 96, 97 again. So, but if he's 93, 94, that's plenty of good enough. But he wasn't there yesterday. So I think he's still trying to

figure it out as well. But these are all, these are all issues that they hope they can fix on the fly here. They're going to have to be sooner or later. Or this, you know, this thing's kind of going to get away from them. All right, let's get to Jeremy Pena update, which you know is at this point. And also, what's the future for at least the next a week or so for Tatsu Emi? Yeah, Pena is back with the team. I guess he'll be in, he was in Baltimore, so he'll be here in Boston this weekend. You know, he grew up in Providence, so he'll have some people at the ballpark probably. But it looks like he'll be on a rehab probably next week. So I think certainly maybe after the Dodgers series they get him

back. I don't know how many games he's going to need probably no more than two or three. So he looks like he's pretty close. Emi, they're going to give him one more start. I haven't seen whether that's going to be at double A or AAA at this point, but he's just going to have to go out there and put up some results and get some guys out or they got a big issue on their hand with him as well because they invested a lot of money in him. And he was, I got it. They were plugging in the middle of the rotation. And so far it's been a disaster. So this will be a big start for him, I think, to see if he can get this, he can just get himself back on track and get back in the big leagues and see if he can get big league hitters out.

And as far as the offense is concerned, and we, you know, again, it's been a really good season for Yordon. The Cam Smith homerun was a big part of it. What's going through Cam's mind right now? And I'll also throw Bryce Matthews in a mix. These are two guys that, frankly, Dana Brown has got a lot of value in hoping that they are successful. And if they've not been, and there's been ups and downs and downs, more downs and ups, that doesn't

necessarily make things overly great for this lineup with two guys that. have so much invested in the future of this team? Yeah, you're right. I mean, those are two of the key acquisitions for Dana Brown so far. I mean, his first draft pick, Bryce Matthews in 23. And then Cam was sort of the centerpiece of this trade, the Kyle Tucker trade. And, you know, Cam's always working on things. I think he's working on some things with his hands.

But if anyone needed a home run like that, it was Cam Smith. So maybe he can start building on this a little bit. And, yeah, they need to get him going. goes without saying. I mean, the book's still out on Bryce. Again, he's working on some things as well. But as we saw, I think the first game in Baltimore, when he hits the ball, I mean, the ball flies off the bat. He hits the ball really, really hard. He just has so much swing and missed.

And he's got to cut down on that somewhat. I'm interested to see if Zach Desenzo, you know, he's been on rehab. Looks like he's starting to swing it a little better. If he comes back and maybe they send Bryce down and let him play every day and try to work things out there and then maybe take a look at him later. But, you know, I think certainly that, you know, he's got to hit better, I think, to keep his spot on this club once they get a couple more guys back from the injured list.