The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian McTaggart Joins The Show After Astros Sweep Against The Blue Jays

Episode Date: April 24, 2025

Brian McTaggart Joins The Show After Astros Sweep Against The Blue Jays

Time for us spend 10 quality minutes with the one and only Brian McTaggart on the MLB Astros beat here on Sports Talk 790. Tags, Local 9 playing their best baseball this season, a very successful homestam beating up on the Toronto Blue Jays in three consecutive games. I don't know what was more impressed than starting pitching on the relief pitching. Maybe the answer is C all the above. Yeah, they were both great. I mean, I think the relievers went, what, seven and a third scoreless inning. And that was basically the three back end guys, King of Brayu and Hader. Forrest Whitley did have an outing in there.

But it all starts with starting pitching. And all three of the guys that started in that series were great, beginning with, you know, Hunter Brown being, you know, the clear-cut ace of this team. Ronell Blanco with his best start of the season by far. And then Ryan Gusto comes out and shows you why they sort of decided to keep him on this team out of camp after he was set down initially and continues to battle. So, and, you know, if they keep getting this kind of pitch, and I think they're going to be all right. I mean, I think I've said on here, and I mean, we all know that the guys that are struggling are going to come around eventually. It looks like Christian Walker's there. D.S. had a couple of hits yesterday. He's got a long way to go.

You know, Alvarez is slowly, his numbers are slowly climbing up. So, hey, compared to last year when they were 7 and 17 at this point, 13 and 11 looks really good. It does. And you know what? And I know that Joe Espada mentioned us. couple days ago there is a thought of a six-man rotation coming up because of the lack of off days in the month of May. You're going to have a really good arm not available to you because you're going to have to reduce your bullpen by a spot. And ultimately, you've got to make a decision about how you're going to treat that six-man rotation. These are good problems they have right now.

Yeah, you can never have too much 15. So if you've got a guy, you feel good about you. You've got to send him to the AAA that doesn't deserve it. Then, yeah, that's a good problem to have if you're the Astros. I mean, you know, maybe a guy like Logan Van Wyre or rookie who, you know, they're excited about and they feel as a future. I mean, he's a guy I think certainly could, you know, bounce between, you know, AAA and the big leagues this year. So, you know, that's the guy to look at. But, yeah, Lance pitches, you know, this weekend in Corporate's Christie and maybe he comes back soon after that.

But, you know, I think a six-man rotation makes sense. They've done that at different points the last couple of years. I don't Dana Brown is a big fan of that. And, you know, it totally makes sense, especially during a six. stretch where you don't have a day off and they have one of those in May, I think May like 9th through the 25th, pretty much the middle chunk of May there, which includes a road trip to Tampa Bay and Texas. So if they can get Lance back by then and go to a six-man rotation, that would come right

at the right time. Christian Walker got a day off earlier this week, and boy, that has paid dividends for him. And it's funny because sometimes veterans don't want to have to have that day off, saying they can work out their issues by playing every single day. But whatever that was sitting there observing, just kind of. mentally watching the sport as compared to physically being out there, he has been a difference maker the last couple nights. Yeah, and you know, this guy, I'm really impressed by his approach

because when he was moved down in the lineup a few days ago and he's like, totally get it. You know, I'm not getting it done in the four spot. You know, let someone else go in there and get those at bats. And then when he got the day off, he's like, yeah, you know, I understand. And, you know, what he said last night was he thought that the day off gave him a chance, you know, to get away from everything. I think his quote was he didn't have the pressure of figuring out to come to the ballpark and try to get a couple of hits that night.

And he made a couple adjustments the following day just to try to go back to some basics, not tinker too much. The batter's box and comes out and gets three hits and two more right off the bat yesterday, including a homer. So, yeah, science, he's coming around for sure. And, I mean, you know, a breather when you just, you don't see your name in the lineup and say, you know what? I'm just going to sit in the dugout and clear my head and watch. Things like this work. I mean, we've seen it work for a couple of players last year. You know, I think Bregman had a breather and came back and played pretty well.

So managers give these guys the things for a reason, but nice to see him get going after. I know that had to be a tough start, especially with a new team where you come in, pressure's on. You sign all this money and you've got this contract and you're not living up to it. So he's probably putting a lot of pressure on himself as well. Yeah, and somebody who benefited from a breather last year, was it Yiner? I think he got like a bat hit him on the hand or something, and he missed a couple of days, and he came back and his bat kind of woke up. Three-game hit streak for him, so he's showing some signs of life.

But how do you think things are going to be handled going forward for Yiner? Yeah, I mean, I think they're going to keep running them out there to, you know, hopefully for their sake, this is the start of him, you know, coming around a little bit. I mean, he's, you know, he's going to be an aggressive hitter at the plate. pitchers are going to try to exploit that. But, you know, we've saw in the last couple of years, he can do some real damage in the middle of that lineup. But, you know, Caratini's still a guy.

They got to mix in from both sides of the plate. He's just one of the best pure hitters they have on the team as far as bat the ball skills. So I don't think we're going to see any changes in playing time or approach or anything. They're going to keep finding a way to get Yiner in there when he's not catching and hopefully they get him going. Brian McTaggart with us here on Sports Talk 790.

five hits in his last two starts for Zach DeSenzo. What kind of role do you think he can carve out for this team? Well, I think he might play more. They love him. I mean, you know, they like Cam Smith and, you know, all, you know, what he brings and everything. And certainly Cam has had his moments this year. He mean, he hasn't been as electric as he was in the spring, which is to be expected

because you're playing in the regular season. But they really like what Desenzo brings to the plate, how hard he hits the ball, his approach at the plate, excuse me, excuse me, it's pretty advanced and I think we'll see him play more. I mean, we all know he played really sparingly there for a while, but I think it wouldn't surprise me if he starts to take a few of those of bats away from Cam Smith and right field a little bit. I think he's starting to force Joe a spot his hand.

There's really not a spot to mix him in otherwise because, you know, you're not going to play him and left unless, you know, all two days at DH, but then, you know, you got Yordon, you got to get in there. you're not going to play him at third base with Paredes and you're not going to play him at first. I mean, those are his positions. So if you're going to get him in the lineup more, it's going to be probably the expense of Cam Smith. So I think we'll see Zach play a little bit more right field going forward here, you know, putting it maybe a little bit of pressure on Cam to start swinging the bat a little bit better as well. Isn't it crazy, Brian, that it was the Cam Smith for rookie of the year voting was already done by the end of spring training.

and now you've got your Zach DeSenzo fan club growing saying we've got to find a spot for him. This is how the wins of Major League baseball go during the course of the year. And I like Cam's looking more and more comfortable in Wrightfield. I don't think he's embarrassed

himself so far. There have been some plays that, you know, it looks like he's a professional athlete. But if DeSenzzo's bat continues to be a nice lightning rod for this team, this is going to be some interesting times to try to balance who plays where and how to get guys playing time because you've got a lot of guys, your veterans that

don't want to take days off. You know, you know that Christian Walker doesn't want to take any time off at first base. You know Jose Altuvi wants to be in there at least six days a week. You know Yordon if he's not playing in left field wants a DH. So, and then you got a guy like a Chas McCormick who just hasn't seen much playing time at all with the exception of yesterday. There's a little bit of, I'm ready to go, but there's just not enough spots in the field right now for the guys that are looking to get that extra playing time. yeah totally and again if you're you know if you're joe's fought a great problem to have i mean you got guys on the bench you want to try to get the bats because they're being productive and you can't do

it just because some guys are in trance i mean camp smith has has not been bad i mean i think his ops is over 700 but you're right he's looked more and more comfortable in right field the running catch on sunday night was was great i mean he's very athletic out there um you know i think if he stayed out there. If he does stay out there by the end of the year, I think he can be a very capable right fielder. Despenzo, too. I mean, he's, you know, he played shortstop in college. You know, he's a big guy who can move really well. And so I think he can be a solid right fielder as well. So that's going to be a position of watch going forward when I think you got those two guys now clearly are going to battle for some playing time. McCormick's can continue to be

that late game replacement, whether that's in the left field for Altova or in right field for either one of those guys when they have the lead. So it's, you know, the roster right now is, you know, it isn't bad. I mean, Joe's going to have to try to piece it together with the hot hands and so forth. And, but, you know, having Zach, the Senzo hit, you know, Joe Espada will take that any day and find a way to get them in the lineup. All right. You got a trip to Kansas City this weekend of the local nine. And then AJ in town and the rest of the Tigers come in there playing some excellent baseball right now.

And I don't think we're sitting there going revenge series after last year's Wildcard. but this Detroit team just doesn't slow down. So things are about to get a little more stout. Kansas City can hit. They're not doing much pitching so far. It'll be just kind of nice facing some American League opponents. It feels like this Astro schedule at least so far in the early portion of the year's been so National League dominant. Yeah, they came out of the gate with, what, six games against the NL.

Then they faced the Cardinals and Padres back-to-back series. So, yeah, a good run of AL teams coming up here. Yeah, I mean, Detroit, I mean, Mize and Torrance. Corkelson looked like number one picks finally. You know, they were the number one overall picks and that they're playing like it now. Scoobel is scubel. He's got a sub one whip and a 2.22 ERA. So I don't know if we're going to see him next week or not.

But, you know, when any time the Tigers come down, AJ is going to push all the buttons. And, I mean, you know, Detroit's probably one of the top four or five teams in the American League at this point. But, hey, Astros are sitting at 1311. They're only game behind the Rangers for first place. All the talk, you know, a couple of weeks. some of the season about, you know, how terrible things were going, and they're right there where they want to be. So they just have to find a way to keep it up, and they should be able to go to Kansas City and win a couple of those games. Hunter Brown's pitch in Sunday. If you remember last season,

Hunter Brown had that disastrous start in Kansas City, you know, where he couldn't get out of the first inning. And so he's going to go back there now as an ace, a chance to exercise some demons, so that'll be fun to watch as well. Did you ever think you were going to say Hunter Brown and ace in the same conversation? I mean, the answer could be yes, but in your mind when you first saw Hunter, do you say this is the kind of guy that could be potentially a number one guy in a rotation? Well, when you

started hearing buzz about him in the minor leagues, I guess when he got to high A or AA, you know, people internally were talking like, you know, this guy could be a big part of the rotation. You're always skeptical, skeptical in guys like that are moving through, and it's never like he was before that, like a top top prospect. But certainly

this time last year, I would not have said that. I mean, he was sort of clinging to just life as a big leaguer. I mean, I think he was probably getting close to getting shipped out before he changed things up a little bit. But it turned on a dime. And I think since May 1st, he's got the second best ERA as far as starters in the big league. So it's not that he's going to be the ace or what have you. He is the ace.

And that's no knock on Framber Valdez because he's ace 1B. But right now, if you line up this rotation of the playoffs, Hunter Brown would start a game one. So if you say that, then, yeah, that guy's your ace. and good for him for sticking with it and making the necessary changes. All right, Mr. McTagher, thank you very much. We'll look forward to hearing you tomorrow during the On Deck Show

and always reading your award-winning material at MLB.com and Astros.com. Thank you for the visit as always. All right, thanks, Matt. All right, we'll see you, Brian McTaggart with us here every Thursday on Sports Talk 790.