The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian McTaggart Joins The Show Giving His Insight On What Its Going To Take For this Team To Grab A Rhythm

Episode Date: May 8, 2025

Brian McTaggart Joins The Show Giving His Insight On What Its Going To Take For this Team To Grab A Rhythm

Number four of the Matt Thomas show with Ross here on Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas out. Adam Wexer now just joining a for this hour. Do appreciate him. And now for this hour, normally on Thursdays earlier in the show, but he did, I don't know if he's in flight or where are you right now, Brian McTaggart? I am back in Houston. I landed earlier today. Had a flight out of Milwaukee this morning.

so back in some 80 plus degree weather, thankfully, because that was a chilly road trip. Yeah, a little bit of a chilly road trip, and well, especially the results were chilly for the Astros, but they picked up the win in the last game. You know, I did a lot of this offseason defending of Framber Valdez. I'm like, no, there's not good and bad Framber. He's mostly been good.

Guy's been finishing top 10 in the Siong every year, and he really settled in after that horrible outing against the Angels last year. But then, of course, as I defended him all offseason, and we have been kind of seeing good and bad Fromber this year, but we got the good one yesterday, and what do you think is the key to that? Yeah, it was good Framber. I mean, he had the, you know,

the sinker and change-up were really effective pitches for him yesterday in that they were coming out of the hand, you know, pretty similar. They were tonning similarly. So, and the VILO on the change-up, he was, you know, he was 90 to 90 miles an hour with it. And then he, of course, has a curveball to put people away. So he was keeping the ball down, which was a key for him when he got in trouble in a couple of the previous starts.

So it was pretty vintage Framber. And it's still in there. And that's kind of what I wrote. I mean, he sort of reminded people who he is, not that the brewers or the, you know, a great lineup or anything. But it was a lineup that he needed to come out there and dominate. And he did just that. And now he's got to try to build on that going forward against probably a couple of lineups coming up there a little bit better. He's also getting the, hey, you're the ace of the staff.

so hey, we're not going to score you any runs until yesterday. Yeah, that's true. His run support all season, it really has not been good. I mean, he had the complete game loss on the road earlier. I mean, you know, Hunter Browns probably supplanted him his ace at this point, but, I mean, there's room for two aces. So, you know, if you're going to be a team that's going to be taken seriously and win a division, you've got to have two aces and they need Frommer to pitch up to those expectations

and build on what he did yesterday. Yeah, five of his eight starts have been. an ace level material to earn runs or fewer, a pair of starts where he gave up no runs, three other starts. Obviously, you'd like to have him a little bit better from a guy at the top of the rotation, but all in all, five times they probably should have won those games with the way he's pitched. When they've turned it over, when anybody's turned it over to the bullpen, it's obviously been borderline spectacular, especially the back four. What did you think when you knew that this team would be so heavy on Ocurt and

Brian King, after the first couple of games and weeks maybe, you realize they're definitely going to lean on these guys and they've absolutely been able to continue to answer the bell. Well, King was a guy that they talked a lot about in spring training. You know, he came up last year. They really loved his stuff. And so they didn't go out and get a seventh inning guy to sort of replace Presley when you move, you know, you moved everybody else up to the back of the bullpen. There was an opening sort of in that seventh inning spot. And they sort of annoyeded King and said, you know, this is a guy that can do it. And he's done a really, really nice job. Stephen Oakard has been an incredible fine. I mean, this guy,

you know, two scoreless innings the other night. He's been a really big bright spot for them. I thought the bullpen was probably their biggest issue going into the season. You just had a lot of, you know, guys you pulled from other teams, unproven guys. And they've all stepped up. And it turns out their biggest issue is offense. Starting pitching is about what I thought it would be, maybe a little bit better. You know, Erigetti being injured, you know, hurt them.

But, you know, Gusto stepped up and done a pretty good job. So the pitching's been good enough. I mean, we all know that. And they're sitting here with Christian Walker underperforming, Janard Diaz underperforming, Alvarez, underperforming, now injured, and they're 18 and 18. It feels like they should be like 10 games under 500, but they're not. So if you're an Astros fan, it gives you hope that, hey, when those bats start to come around, they can maybe make a little bit of a push here.

Brian McTaggart, MLB.com with us here on Sports Talk 790, keeping with the pitching for a second here. Lance McCullors Jr. Just the latest on how he's feeling and how you thought he looked. Somewhat vintage McCullors with the walks and getting out of some trouble in a soft landing spot against that White Sox lineup.

Yeah, I mean, the fact he got up to 87 pitches, I think, was the biggest news of the day. You know, he competed like he always does. You know, he walked the bases loaded, and it looked like, you know, it looked like it was about to go south. Bullpen was warming up. He came back and got an out and ended up going another inning after that.

So, you know, stuff looked pretty good. he wasn't happy with his slider. He called it an F slider, so he got through four innings with an F slider. The rest of the pitches look pretty good. It'll be interesting to see if his VLO can bump up a little bit. I think with the sinker, he was 91, 94. Maybe if he can stretch another mile an hour or two out of that. He said when he was rehabbing or coming back in 2022, it did take a few starts for the VLO to come around.

So he'll get a chance Saturday against the Reds team that he probably doesn't know much about. out and his first home start. So I know that's got to be pretty special for him too. But all in all, I thought, you know, a pretty solid first step for a guy who hadn't pitched in 200 or what, two and a half years. Off day today. Off day again on May 26th, baseball every day in between. Do you anticipate the last start of this homestand going to the sixth man in the rotation, presumably Ryan Gusto? Yes, I do.

I think a spot has gone on record and said they're going to go to a six-man rotation journey in this stretch. They like they like to do that whenever they can. Dana Brown is a big fan of that. It makes a lot of sense. I mean, they have a guy like gusto they can put in there and he's available in the pen for now, maybe even for the next game or two, but then I would imagine they would save him for that start. But yeah, six-man rotation, you know, this homestand will get a chance to see where Eric Getty's at. He was not on the road trip.

So he's still got the cast on, so it seems like he's not close. But, you know, if they can get him back here in the next month into June, you know, I think that would be huge for them as well. I mean, like I said, I mean, I thought starting pitching depth would be a huge issue for them. And so far it's not. So credit to, you know, some of those other guys stepping up, even when you've had a, you know, a pretty bad injury like Ari Getty, which, you know, he's been out a month plus now. Switching to the hitting, we know there's been a lot of struggles. some people are on Pope watch I'm on Pena Breakout

season to watch Brian where are we at on that Yeah I mean I think it's fair to say He's in route to one I mean even after moving him to the lead off spot on April 27th He's hitting 349 has not slowed down He just looks more confident You know he's striking out less walking more So looks like he you know he's figured something out

You know I always say we'll get to Memorial Day And let's see where everybody's at you get a better assessment. You're about a third of the way through the season. But, yeah, I'm, I think I'm about ready to say that Jeremy Pena is having his breakout season we were all waiting for. And it comes at the right time with all the struggles they've had with other guys. And I think it was you that said earlier, Ross, where would they be without Pena? There'd probably be three, four games under 500 at this point.

So, you know, hopefully for their sake, he can keep that up. And, you know, Jake Myers can keep doing his thing. And eventually maybe some of these guys will come around. And if Yordaans' hand has been bothering him, I mean, that's probably good news for the Astros. He was just not in a season-long funk. He just wasn't healthy. So, you know, I'd be given him to the takes off. We'll get him back on track as well.

Brought up the name Jake Myers, and far be it for me to ask the Jake Myers question when I'm sitting in the presence of the president of the Jake Myers fan club. But I'll take it anyway. Do you think in the interim in the waiting for Yordon to get back, they will, Joe will consider Jake Myers as a hitter that doesn't bat six? seven, eight, or nine? I don't think so. That would really surprise me at this point. And maybe one of the reasons Myers is hitting so well is because he's hitting in the right spot in the order. So, you know, there's not a ton of pressure on them. And so a lot of times when guys are performing well and maybe it rolls in the bullpen pitching in certain situations and hitting somewhere in the order and people want them to change, well, some of the reasons they're doing well is because they're in

the right spot. And I get that feeling with Jake Myers is that he's in the right spot. He's still a bottom third order guy to me. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of guys underperforming. You could move him up, but I wouldn't tinker with it at this point. If you want to hit him six, you know, keeping there and, you know, hopefully for their sake, he keeps swinging the bat like he is because he had a really, really good road trip. I mean, he single-handedly won one of the games in Chicago and kept him from getting swept. So it would have been a one-and-five road trip.

It wasn't for Jake Myers breaking out. But, yeah, I'll be keep him where it is and not try to change that formula right now. And keeping with that as we look at guys who are kind of part-time players and thriving in opportunities given, one of those is Zach DeZenzo. Where do you think they are right now, especially with Joe, obviously trying to get him some more starts in the lineup, and he's performed pretty well. Yeah, I mean, he's done a really nice job. I mean, he's had a couple of hiccups in the outfield to drop ball the other night. He had a throw in left field on the road trip that wasn't the best. a little bit of a base running issue in the game yesterday where you know he had to scurry back to first but um you know offensively the the guy hits the ball really hard and they really like the quality of what he does when he goes up there and so yeah he can play left he can dh he can play right i think we're going to continue to see him do that i

joe was asked point blank could he get back on the dirt you know play some first or third and you know we've seen a little bit of them at first but um you know as long as cam smith continues to struggle. I think it's fair to say Cam's struggle a little bit that I think Desenzo will get more at bats in right field. And you know, and Cam is not playing, you know, super every day right now consistently, so it's going to be hard for him to come out of this

struggle, I think, but you can't ignore you know, Senzo's at bats, how hard he's hitting the ball, his versatility. He brings a lot to the lineup right now, and I think he's going to play more days than not. Brian McTaggart, MLB.com, or a weekly guest here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Appreciate the time. As always Brian, but quickly, what's going on at astros.com?

Well, glad you asked. I did a little video last night in the hotel. We called them Tap Stories. Oh. Is you send that out on accident? No, no. It was a very professional polished baseball video. Yeah, so yeah, don't get too excited there. That's on the website.

I did a thing the other day comparing Altuvae and Vigio's numbers at age 35, and the chances of Altuve running down some of those Vizio team records. was a fun one as well. And yeah, and we'll have a newsletter out on Saturday as well. So keep on and look out for that. All right. Thanks, Brian.

Appreciate the time. We'll talk to you next week. Or actually, somebody will talk to you tomorrow. It won't be me. Oh, actually, wait, it is me. I'll talk to you tomorrow, Brian. I can't wait.

Yeah, you're welcome. All right. I'll ask you all the same questions in the same form tomorrow. You ready for that? Okay. Yeah, sounds good. I'll be ready. All right.

Thank you, Brian. Appreciate the time. As always.