The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian McTaggart Joins The Show After Jake Myers Goes Down & Astros Get Swept

Episode Date: July 10, 2025

Brian McTaggart Joins The Show After Jake Myers Goes Down & Astros Get Swept

If you miss the first hour, the Matt Thomas show here with Ross, we are at Talia Brewing. You need to come by and have some lunch. Ross and I just ordered a sausage pizza. It's going to be magnificent. You also learn the minutia of the Uno playing rules and skin-to-skin contact with new fathers. What other show in the marketplace, as you would say, Matt, is going to give... There isn't a single show. That type of content.

That's why Brian McTaggart insists on being one of us every Thursday at 11 o'clock on 70. Tags, how are things? I'm good. How are you? Good. All right. Let's put things in perspective here. So you're in the clubhouse after the game yesterday, and you asked, or somebody asked among the scrum about, does it hurt less or more for Jake Myers? And he didn't want to answer. Were you just like dumbfound out? Oh, yeah, that was me who asked him. I mean, we were told that Myers wasn't going to talk, but me and Chandler and.

and Matt Kawahara waited him out anyway. I mean, we need to hear that from him. And Myers is a great guy and was kind enough to do a, you know, a short interview. So props to him. But yeah, he, when he was asked that question, he gave a long pause and then asked a member of PR staff if he has to answer that. And then he didn't answer it. And that's fine. His prerogative, I'm just glad he talked and gave us some kind of update.

But, you know, he was hurting. I mean, he was walking around really gingerly, you know, limping pretty noticeably. So did not look very comfortable. So, yeah, it's, you know, I don't have good vibes for Jake Myers. You know, I hope he's okay, but it didn't look good. You know, the reality is this, and we've spent the first hour primarily talking about this. We're not doctors. We don't have the inside intelligence from the organization.

We do know what Joe Espada said. We do know what an athlete wants to do. He wants to play. We know that a manager is not going to put a player out. there just exclusively based off of the players saying to you, I feel good. So as you're watching this unfold, we were at the ballpark yesterday, seeing him being helped off the field, could he have just made a bad move? What I can't accept is anyone trying to rush him back on the field.

And I think there are probably some that are thinking, why are you putting a player out there that isn't 100%? I just can't fathom, even if there is malpractice, even if there is a misdiagnosis, that anyone would say, rough, you know, fight through this, Nancy, get on the field, we need you immediately. And that's my point is that I know people want to find the answer and want to crucify everybody. But come on, I just think that that's not in the DNA of the manager and of the player. Yeah, for sure. Spot is not going to put him out there if he doesn't get total clearance from medical

staff. If Myers doesn't say, hey, I'm good to go. And Myers, before the game was, was, was, hey, I'm good to go. I mean, he did it, he told us he did a 20 to 25 minute workout. He did sprinting. He did cuts. No issues. He looked, he looked and felled 100%. And then something happened just when he was jogging back out, you know, jogging back out there. So, yeah, I don't think, in this case, you can't point a finger to anyone and say, boy, they rushed them back. because I guess the information everybody was getting, including the player, was like, I'm good to go. And so, hey, he's good to go.

Medical staff cleared him. He's doing these workouts without any issues. He's not feeling it. Let's put him in the lineup. And it's not even like he was, the weird thing is, I mean, it's not like he was running the first or going first to third. I mean, he was just jogging the center field and started limping all of a sudden. So just really a strange deal.

So I guess they'll give us some sort of update on Fridays, so we're in conjecture mode for the next 48 hours. This is just another name to the seemingly endless list of injuries. And did we finally see the Astros, Brian, get caught up in the moment to go, you know what, we're running out of depth. The bottom third of the order just didn't provide much. If not for Jose Al-Tube, they wouldn't be a runner in scoring position, scoring.

Where are we with this squad of, hey, this has been good to see some of these younger guys get an opportunity, but man, we've got to start getting some healthy players back on the field. Yeah, I think that's 100% fair. I mean, I think their injuries offensively have caught up with them. I don't think there's any doubt. I mean, you don't have Pena for that series. You don't have Christian Walker who, you know, had a really good road trip and was swinging the bat really well. Of course, Alvarez is out.

And, I mean, that's three, three of your, you know, like it or not, Walker's still a guy you want in the middle of your lineup at this point. So three middle of the lineup guys that you just don't have and you're replacing them with guys that they brought in the spring training as non-rosster players for depth for their defense, you know, as pieces. And now they're getting the bats of the bottom of the order. It's just a big drop off, you know, offensively. And, yeah, I mean, it's definitely catching up to him a little bit. And, you know, Walker can be on the fraternity list three days, which is up now.

Of course, tomorrow, I mean, today they're off. So I would suspect he's in the lineup tomorrow. And now it looks like Jake's going to be out a while. So they're in a tough spot. they don't want to rush these guys back from injuries because they don't want to risk re-injuring. They also have a, you know, still have a pretty good lead in the division, so they can take a little bit of time. But certainly they have to start getting some healthy bodies back in this lineup sooner than later. Brian McTaggart with us here on Sports Talk 790.

And with that, you're talking about bodies. I think it's interesting now three weeks away from the trade deadline. Where do you think we are? Because it could be guys coming back. and then if you make a trade and then that person you trade for doesn't need the playing time if everybody's coming back healthy. And that could be both on the pitching side and the position player side. Yeah, I think there's no doubt.

I think we've said it before. I think they're going to look to get a bad, a left-handed bat. I mean, Daniel Brown has even admitted that after Alvarez, you know, had his setback, he said that it hasn't changed their thoughts on the trade deadline. They're still going to be in the market for a left-handed bat. I still think they're going to go after a starting pitcher. I mean, I've been kind of back and forth on that, and I'm back in the camp of, I think they want to add a starting pitcher from the aspect of, you still don't know when these guys are coming back. I mean, Aragetti was supposed to be out six weeks, and I don't think he's faced hitters yet.

And, you know, he got injured in early April. So these rehabs have been slow and there's been, you know, guys that have had setbacks here and there. So I think it behooves them to go out and look at the starting pitcher market as well, just to get another arm in here. you can plug in the rotation so you're not having to rely on, you know, some guy who was, you know, a non-raster invitee to camp. I mean, Brandon Walter did a really nice job last night other than the two pitches. The homers and those were good pitches. I mean, but still, if they can get better with their pitching staff and add a veteran arm,

then they probably should try to do that. Yeah. And interesting, wondering how Lance McCuller's Jr., you know, factors into that. He's been so up and down. But, of course, the start in L.A. was very good. And I would say like the last couple of innings of that, Brian, he looked about as locked in as I've seen him this year. Yeah, he did.

And props to Lance. I mean, he was not coming off a good start. He's facing the Dodgers. You know, Dodgers Stadium is a place that he's pitched very, very well in his career. Of course, that, you know, started game seven of the World Series. But, yeah, I think if you're the Astros, you would definitely like to see Lance, you know, get his feet under him a little bit, you know, start to build some consistent starts here and there. Chance to do that against the Rangers lineup.

that's not very good. So his last start before the All-Star break, so I think he'll be fired up for that. But he's done, Lans has done better than I, you know, I thought he would at this point. I mean, he's had a couple of stinkers, but for the most part, he's done out there and competed. And, you know, I thought done a pretty nice job.

And Dodger Stadium was one of his better starts. A couple more minutes here with Brian McTaggart here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Do you think if you pulled Jose Altube aside, he would tell you, Tags, I love playing second base. I mean, I did left field because I'm a good teammate and whatnot, but I'm really comfortable and enjoying what I'm doing right now, and I think it's indirectly helping me feel more comfortable with the plate,

or do you say, you know what, he's just hitting a matter what position he plays? I think probably a little of both. I think deep down he wants to play second, but he also put in a lot of time and effort into trying to learn left field in the offseason. You know, with the injuries that they have, it's, you know, you need to bond to play other places, so I see why they're playing him at second right now. And there's probably an element to where he does feel really comfortable there.

Does that carry over at the plate? You know, I'm not sure. I think Joseo Tube is going to hit or he's not. I don't think he's going to take his defensive position with him. But I mean, I meant to look up the numbers yesterday. I think he's probably approaching as many games at second now than he is in left field. It'll be interesting to see if they start getting guys back healthy when Pena comes back.

If he plays on left field a little more, they continue, you know, to play him at second base. But all in all, I think the move to left field work in that your defense on the infield got a lot better with him in left field. I mean, he's not a great left fielder, but certainly he's not a great second baseman either. And the infield defense is so important to this team. And it had gotten a lot better with Altuvay and left field.

I mean, they were the, I think they were the best defensive team in baseball. So all in all, it was a transition that made sense and it was working. So when they get Pena back, definitely have to keep an eye on how they handle Al-Tube in his playing time positionally. Lastly, there are two space cowboys. One is John Singleton, who continues to always crush at the AAA level. The major league numbers have been mixed. And Bryce Matthews, we have seen a plethora of new players come to the Astros this year and have all had some levels of success, but regression back to the norm in the last week or so.

Any chance one or both see major league playing opportunities for the Astros before the end of the year? Yeah, I think there's a chance. I'll probably say Singleton more. I could see him as a bat they bring up at some point, maybe in September when they had a couple of guys get that left-handed bat. Matthews, from what I'm hearing, just defensively is not there at second base yet.

I mean, he came up as a shortstop in college, and the defense is just not there. And that goes back to what I was talking about before, because, you know, this team really stresses defense. It's really important of what they do. He's going to have to button that up a little bit. Also, a lot of swing and miss there, too. So he's got things to work on.

I do think at some point next year he's probably your starting second baseman, but I don't know if he's going to get to the big leagues this year. If he does, I don't think he's going to come in here and play a big role. It could be end of the year type thing. But I would say probably we won't see Matthews until next year unless there's just, you know, more injuries and there's no way around it. but he's still got work to do down in AAA. Of course, he is playing in the futures game this week,

so props to him for that. But he's still got some stuff he's got to do. Tags, great stuff. As always, thank you for the visit. And we'll talk again next Thursday before the start of the second half of the season. All right. Sounds good. Thanks, guys.

You got it. Brian McTaggart, MLB.com. And on the Astros beat here on Sports Talk 790.