The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian McTaggart Joins The Show After Astros Explosive Game 2 Win

Episode Date: June 12, 2025

Brian McTaggart Joins The Show After Astros Explosive Game 2 Win

straight up here on Sports Talk 790. It is our number two of the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. He is with his son celebrating his son's college graduation and his young son's dream trip for his vacation, going with dad to see Barry Manilow and Carrot Top. So he is in Vegas. Brian McTaggart is here with us. Brian, your thoughts on Carrot Top. Boy, that sounds like we're really missing out on that. I don't care. Carrot top was okay like 20 years ago or something, but I don't know. No, you don't know. I know what you do know about.

You know about the Astros. Brian McTagger covering the Astros for MLB.com and all these storylines, Brian, and honestly, a lot of complaining from myself, fan bases, all that, like the injuries, Yordon, hand stuff, and underperformances from Yiner and Walker until last night. And here we are, four games up in the American League West. Well, I mean, you tipped your hat to the Astros, but also the division is really bad. I mean, everybody's below 500 except the Astros. I mean, the Angels are tied with the Mariners for second.

I mean, the Angels are not good. I know some Angels fans are getting excited about, you know, now that they're in second place. Well, it's because the Mariners are just as bad as you are. And Rangers aren't good. I mean, but, you know, props to the Astros, you got to, you know, you got to take. take out the trash when you play them and so um you got to take advantage of those situations but yeah i mean if if they had been if they had been more healthy and those guys you talked about had hit better i mean they would have like a 10 game lead right now but still they have to be thrilled with where they're at

because a four game leads a four game lead and uh you know and you have a chance to build on it here i don't know how much mariner's baseball you've been catching but they have lost eight of their last nine games i mean what is going on over there is this something like are our our Are the Astros just going to run away with this division? Well, unless the Mariners make changes, then probably yes. I mean, they didn't make any offensive improvements in the offseason. Jerry DePoto thought, you know, it was kind of banking on getting healthy and having some guys had bounced back seasons.

Now, you know, Cal Raleigh's been really good. J.P. Crawford's been good, but Julio Rodriguez doesn't play like a star anymore. And, you know, they went out and brought back Polanco, who got off to a really hot start, but he's cooled off. You know, they signed Donovan Solano, who's terrible. Mitch Garver hasn't been good. I mean, they just can't score. Their bullpen hasn't been great.

I mean, you know, they have a pretty good closer. And then they've had injuries to the rotation, which they didn't have last year. So they're just not a good team right now. So the Astros will play them after the All-Star break in Seattle, you know, with a chance to put more distance between them and the Mariners. And they get next week, they get the Angels on the road. So they're going to start facing some of these teams head to head. Brian McTaggart with us here on Sports Talk 790.

Quality stuff from Ryan Gusto last night. Where do you think his leash was before that started? Obviously, it's longer now. As in terms of staying in the rotation? Yes, yes. Well, I think it was long because they don't really have anybody else. And now they're in this six-man rotation. So they really had nowhere else to turn, I think,

unless he just went out there and, you know, pitched one or two innings, then you would really have to reassess. But the fact he had career highs and innings pitched and pitches and strikeouts, you know, fastball hit in 97, he was a lot more aggressive. You know, it helped when he had a 3-0 lead in the first inning. But it's definitely something for him to build on. That's sort of the pitcher that we heard when they put him in the rotation, that he was capable of pitching like that, hadn't done it yet.

But, you know, like I said all along, they're sort of at the tail end of their starting pitching depth here. So there's not a lot of places for them to turn right now. You know, maybe that'll change if they get an arm at the depth. line, Erigeti back in July maybe, we'll see. But, you know, I didn't think Gusto was in real danger to go anywhere because there were no other options. Christian Walker and Yiner Diaz with Good Nights, Walker, the headliner, of course, but the two hardest hit balls were off the bat of Yiner Diaz.

And it feels like we've been here a couple of times with both of them saying, hey, is this the jumping off point for a turnaround to their seasons? What are you feeling on both of those guys? Yeah, you're right. I mean, this happens like once every week where one of these guys has a good game or hits the ball hard. You're like, okay, maybe this is it. But, you know, Yonner hit a couple balls hard the night before as well. You know, Walker really crushed his Homer. I think it was almost 108 off the bat.

And then I think one of the things in Joe Espada brought this up, too, was his third hit. Was a little bloop single to right field. And he had just been not getting those. He'd really been not getting the breaks on balls that weren't hit hard or pop-ups. or things like that. So I think for him, that was probably as encouraging as the home run. Like, hey, I'm finally starting to get some breaks here in the three-head game. But, yeah, if you're the Astros, you can only hope it's, you know, this is the one they turn it around and start building on.

Because, man, if you get those two guys going, you know, in the five, six spots of the order, wherever they're at and you get Yordaun back healthy and playing like Yordaum, then you've got a real chance to run away with the division. Yeah, and Yiner Diaz, I was kind of a little surprised, just looking at up, earlier today. His batting average 239, but his XBA is 281, and he's had pretty bad luck with batted balls. So I think I'm feeling confident that if he can keep this up, he'll be looking better. Yeah, I believe that. I mean,

he drew a four-pitched walk yesterday, too, which was pretty strange as well. So, but yeah, I mean, you can tell that he's hit some balls hard at people. And I know fans don't like hearing that. I mean, either get a hit or you don't, or you drive the ball over the fence or you don't. But it's not like Yoneman. is hitting 190. I mean, he's probably hitting like 240 is, I'm guessing his OPS is around 700. I'm not sure. So it's not like he's been terrible, but certainly below, I think, what everybody expected of him, but certainly swinging about well lately. Brian McTaggart continuing with us here on a sports talk 790. Jeremy Pena, a couple of hits again, hitting 322 and just keeps on doing it. Should be an all-star at the shortstop position. What do you think is the biggest reason for his break? breakout, whether it be change in approach or maturity or, I mean, just a little bit of luck

or what do you think is happening with Jeremy Pena that's leading to this? Well, I think you hit on the two biggest things. I mean, maturity, this is his fourth year now. And, you know, he came up and had a pretty good rookie year. And then we all know what he did in the playoffs. And he sort of had similar years the next two years, you know, a couple of years ago that the power went away in the second half. So he came to camp last year in 24 and changed his stance.

seemed to work pretty well for him, but I think he made, you know, he kind of worked on that a little bit more and just tried to just try to refine his stance and his approach to where you could see the ball better. And that's worked out for him. I think once he starts getting confidence, then he realizes that, hey, this is the player that I know I can be. But, you know, props to him because, you know, he's really worked hard the last couple of years to try to get to that next level and it looks like he's going to be there. I mean, it certainly seems like him. Bobby Witt or Jacob Wilson. of A's are probably your three best short stops in the American League at this point. So I don't know if they'll take three short stops.

I mean, I'm guessing they probably will. But certainly, Pena deserves a shot to be in the All-Star game. And who knows, maybe he starts. Maybe he gets enough fan votes to start. I know the Royals vote pretty well. I'm not sure. It'll be interesting to see what kind of voting support A's players get. Not that they have that many All-Star caliber players, but just, I mean,

or people in Sacramento are going to rush and punch the balance online? Who knows? But, yeah, Pena certainly deserves to. being the All-Star game, I'd say. One of the reasons the Astros have been so successful is they've had these guys that kind of just live and breathe and love baseball. Born ballplayers, I would say. You know, like Carlos Cray, Alex Bregman, Jose Altovae. Would you put Jeremy Payne in that category?

Oh, yeah, he's definitely a ball player. I mean, he grew up around in ballparks. His dad played in the big leagues for seven or eight years. So this is what he wanted to do all along. This is what he was born to do. And from day one, he's carried himself like a big league player. And now he's performing like an elite big league player. So, yeah, he's definitely cut from that same cloth.

You know, Bregman was a gym rat, so to speak, as far as baseball players go. You know, the story of him turning on the lights at LSU in the middle of the night so he could go up and feel some ground balls. And, you know, Kare is a guy who was drafted at 17 years old and, you know, realized his dream at an early age. So there aren't many of those guys. But, you know, Pena certainly is, you know, took advantage. of the opportunity

he's been given to him. He's very talented player defensively too. He's been terrific this year. Continuing with Brian McTaggart Astros.com here on Sports Talk 790. A couple of hits for Jose Altoove yesterday. Where are you at on him in general? To me it's kind of harder

to get a beat on him rather than others like Walker's been bad. Pena's been good. It's been a little bit of up and down with Altovae and you factor in the left field stuff, the fact that he is getting older. What are What are your expectations, I should say, for him going forward? Yeah, you know, he's hit the ball a lot better here the last couple of weeks.

I know that he was trying to hit the ball in the air more. You know, he had a pretty prolonged slump there for a couple of weeks. I think in May, and he came out of it, and one of the things he said was that he just, he was needing to hit the ball in the air more. He was hitting the ball on the ground too much. And once he started driving the ball a bit more, you know, the home run started to come back again. but I'm just never going to count him out with age. I mean, he still gets down the line when he can,

an elite 30 feet per second. You know, he can still put the bat on the ball and hit it, you know, as far as almost anybody. Defensively, he has played more second lately, but I think some of that in the last week or so has been because they have Jacob Melton. And I think Espada wants to put him in the outfield to get a longer look at him. Also gives him that other left-handed bat in the lineup.

But, you know, he's still going to. to play left field. So it's been an interesting season for Jose, but overall, his numbers are probably a little below where I would expect they would be, but it wouldn't surprise me if at the end of the year he's put up a season, you know, similar than that he had last year. So at some point, there's going to be a big decline coming, and, you know, but I just really haven't seen it, yet. I mean, I still think, you know, you feel good about him when he's hitting near the top of that lineup. Trade deadline. seven weeks from today.

Of course, we talked about the cushion right now in the American League West and how bad the division is that. Does that affect Dana Brown's thinking at all, or do you think he's more focused on trying to win a pennant? And, I mean, do you still think they will be in the market for a bat and an arm come deadline time? Yeah, I do.

I mean, I don't think where they're at in the standings is going to have much effect. I mean, they want to get better, and they have, you know, a couple of glaring areas where they can get better starting pitching, of course. I mean, there's a lot of teams that need starting pitching, so that, you know, that's not a shock there. And it's not like they're going to go out and, I think, get, you know,

Justin Verlander in 2018 or anybody like that. I mean, they need a guy that they can plug in the rotation, just give them a little bit more depth. And they could use a left-handed bat. I mean, you know, maybe Melton ends up being that guy, and, you know, they feel comfortable riding with him. But maybe another guy they can put, they can play, you know, maybe some second base,

about two days in the left field because I'm not sure Brendan Rogers is going to be long-term plans on this team but yeah I think if you have a four-game lead you want a 10-game lead you have a 10 game lead you want a 15 game lead and then you know you think you know you get Alvarez back

and you get Arrogatti back and who knows maybe you get Garcia back at the end of the year and now you're in really good shape but you know everyone's going to want starting pitching it's going to be interesting to see you know who makes the first trade because then we'll start to see these things start flying off the board I have a dumb question.

Now, the Astros need a left-handed bat, and they could use a second baseman. Are there any left-handed second baseman in baseball right now? Left-handed hitting second baseman. It's pretty rare, right? Yeah, Brandon Lowe, maybe, with the race. I mean, it might not be a bat. Yeah, go ahead. But, yeah, it is pretty rare.

I mean, it doesn't have to be a second basement. It could be somebody that could play multiple positions in DH here and there. but so you know you're not going to put somebody at first you're not going to put somebody at third you're not going to put somebody at shortstop or catcher there's no room so you're kind of limited in your roster construction where you could bring in a left-handed bat but if you could have somebody versiled up to maybe you know play some outfield and dhs you know that's also something they look at all right there you go bryan mctaggart great stuff with him as always appreciate the time what you got going on of the old astros dot com Brian yeah well I had a there's a story on the website tonight sort of breaking down three of the

key reasons the Astros won yesterday one of them Alte dee getting his 23rd 100 hit dived in the Ryan Gusto and his performance a little bit but I have a really a really nice Father's Day story coming up on an Astro who's a first time father and he's going to he's got the cleats and the belt to celebrate it on Sunday

so he's just got to get in the lineup but look for that this weekend as well. All right. And I like you giving the nod to Brian to Bray you as a guy we're not talking about, but is all-starworthy. So appreciate the good work. As always, Brian McTaggart of Astros.com. We'll talk to you down the road. All right. Thanks, Ross. All right, there you go. Brian McTaggart, astros.com, MLB.com. Does great work covering your Houston Astros. You