The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian McTaggart Joins The Show Talking Astros Trade Deadline & 2nd Half Of The Season

Episode Date: July 17, 2025

Brian McTaggart Joins The Show Talking Astros Trade Deadline & 2nd Half Of The Season

Matt Ross with you. It is Sports Talk 7-90. You're proud home of the Astros. Astros will start a series tomorrow in Seattle. Joining us right now, a man who will be sitting in Economy Plus in a flight to Seattle. It's Brian McTagger. Tags, how was your All-Star break? It was good.

You know, unplugged a little bit. Watched a little bit of the All-Star Derby, none of the game. But, yeah, it was nice to run a little bit. But, yeah, second half is coming quick. Second half is coming quick. We just had a caller before. And I know your guess is as good as ours at this point. Do you expect the Astros to be active in at least conversations?

And what my prediction is is it's going to be, they're going to make a move of some sort, but it's going to be somebody that's going to be spectacularly underneath the radar. Number one, do you agree with that? And number two, if you don't, what could the Astros give up that could make them have a splashy trade deadline pickup? Yeah, I mean, I think they will be active. I mean, I think they're going to be looking at two things. I mean, we all know left-handed bat, which they wanted even before Alvarez, you know,

seemed like he's going to be out a while. Dana Brown's been, I guess, on record saying that, you know, they still want a left-handed bat. There's some urgency there. And also starting pitching, even though they have some guys trending back, you can never, you know, have enough starting pitching. and they feel that if they get another starter and plug him behind Fromber and Hunter Brown, it'll give them a really monstrous one, two, three in the playoffs,

which, you know, would put them in good position because in the playoffs, it all comes down to pitching. Will it be under the radar? I don't know. I mean, if they get a guy like Seth Lugo from the Royals, is that under the radar? You know, Andrew Heaney from the, from the Angels, is that under the radar? I mean, I think they're going to, if you're going to get a starting pitcher, you're going to get somebody that I think, if you know, if you're a baseball fan, you know, who it is and

and what they're going to give up, they're going to have to give up prospects, you know, plain and simple. But, you know, Jim Crane's not shy about giving up prospects because nine times out of ten, you give up these prospects, and they don't really pan out. So if you look at all the trades they've made the last 10 years, I mean, how many prospects have come back to bite you, not too many. So they're in win now mode. They think if they can, you know, shore up a couple of things, get a couple guys back from injury, they got a shot. to make a run of this. Do you feel like the Astros have been incredibly lucky? I think they have when it comes to all these moves, whether it's Zach Granky, whether it's Justin Verlander, whether it was Yusay Kikuchi? I mean, there is nobody really that has bitten him in the ass in terms of,

oh my God, this guy's having a long, lengthy 10-year career. I mean, maybe you could say Josh Hater many moons ago, but was he ever forecast to be a dominant closer? I think the Astros have been remarkably lucky the players have come back and not done a whole lot since wearing a different team's uniform. Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, another one maybe to put in there was, you know, Teosca Hernandez. You know, he played in just maybe even one game for the Astros,

and they dealt him away, and he's gone on to have a really nice career. I mean, but that was still a few years ago. But you're right. I mean, look at the prospects they gave up last year for Kukuchi. I mean, you know, all three of those guys are still young in their careers and could pan out. But I don't think anyone's, you know, when they got traded, everyone was freaking out that, you know, they gave away three budding superstars.

and one of them's heard and, you know, Will Wagner wasn't able to duplicate what he did right off the bat. And, you know, Lophafito's bounced between, you know, Buffalo and Toronto. So, I mean, and like I said earlier, I mean, Cray knows that prospects are nice, but he wants to win. And, you know, if you got to give up two or three your top 10 prospects to go out and get a pitcher who's going to put you in really good position to make a run at the World Series, I think they're going to do it. Brian and Taggart with us here on Sports Talk 790. and just Brian, I'm curious your thoughts on just the trade ecosystem as a whole, especially with the Astros, with you have fewer sellers now with the third wildcard. The Astros don't have a ton of resources.

They do have a lot of guys coming back from injury. So I guess I'm just asking how aggressive will Dana be considering all of those factors that even if he wants to make a bunch of deals, it's going to be difficult for him. Yeah, it will be difficult because you're right. I mean, there's very few teams that are out of it. I think other than the nationals, Marlins, Rockies, and Pirates, everyone else is within seven games of a postseason spot. I mean, I guess it's up to some of these teams, you know,

what they want to do, like the, you know, the debacks and rays and teams like that. But there's going to be a lot of teams looking for those pitchers and a lot of teams looking for bats and left-handed bats. So, yeah, but pitching specifically, it does seem like by the end of August, they could get Javier back. They could get perhaps Garcia back, Erigetti. You know, he could be right in that mix as well. He's a guy not coming off surgery,

so maybe you feel a little bit better about him coming back than the other guys. And I think that maybe that could go into Dana Brown's factoring into trades and, you know, how much he gives up. And if he feels, hey, this is too expensive, you know, maybe we'll stand pat right here. And then just, you know, hopefully we get one of these guys back and it can deepen our rotation a little bit. And maybe we'll focus on a left-handed bat. So I think whoever they get, it's going to be a rental, obviously, because you get someone with some time remaining on their contract.

It's going to cost even more. But like you said, I mean, they've made some pretty good trades the last year. Kikuchi trade worked out pretty well for them. He didn't pitch in the playoffs. But I think last year when they faced Detroit, it was just worst case scenario, wild card round. They got to stay out of the wild card round, get that first round by. And if they get another arm or get one or two of these arms back, I think they'd be in good shape to go, you know, make a good push here to at least the LCS.

One of the arms I do have, Hunter Brown, not listed as a probable this weekend. Eyebrow raise for you at all. Of course, we know the last couple of starts was a little bit shaky, so just needs a little bit of extra rest. And I'm not saying we need to be concerned or anything. But what was your reaction when you saw that? Yeah, a little surprising. I thought for sure that Hunter and Frumber would pitch there. I mean, I haven't had a chance to ask anybody about it.

that'll happen tomorrow, but my guess would be they just need a little bit more reps. You know, you're right. His last two starts before the break, giving up 10 run runs in, I'm not sure how many endings he pitched, but, you know, 10 run runs and two starts. Not what he wanted. Hunter said that he, you know, coming off to start Sunday, that he thought he made, you know, the right pitches and it was just one of those days. So obviously, I think it might be just a chance to build in some rest.

Yes, this is a team you really, you know, you want to win this series. obviously you don't want to get swept. So showing a lot of faith in Brandon Walter and McCuller is off the bat and then Framber. So I'm guessing that Hunter would start the first game in Arizona. Not sure. I don't want to make any assumptions. But yeah, I was a little surprised. I thought for sure that they would throw their best two pitchers against Seattle.

And I can't give you 100% reason why that's not happening. Yeah, I guess it's more for an answer for tomorrow. But dead arm can happen. Guy is making 26 starts a year and not happening anymore. I would think the red flag would go up if he doesn't start Monday in Arizona. That would be my guess on that. So anytime he pitches in that Arizona series will be fine. But if it's late in that series, that must be, man, I need some downtime here.

And that's not the most encouraging thing you want to hear when you're sitting here trying to fight off a Seattle team that just finished off sleep in the Detroit Tigers. Yeah, and I guess you're right. I mean, if he's still in the first rotation, waiver rotation out of the break, then yeah, Monday in Arizona. then fine. But you know, these are all things we'll have to answer tomorrow when we get to the ballpark and talk to Hunter and talk to Joe and see where they're at. But I know they keep close eyes on these guys and, you know, maybe you buy him an extra day here or there and that's, you know, something that can benefit him down the stretch. And he thought of you going down to West Palm Beach? There's going quite a few stories down there. My God, everybody's going down

there to hang out and work out because I would like to know some more things beyond well. Things are progressing well and throwing off flat ground and pitching. to PCL players. I mean, I never would have thought that an injured thumb would have cost Spencer Arageti basically 80% of the season so far. Well, yeah, you're right. I mean, when he got injured, they said he would be out six weeks, and that was early May.

That was actually in Seattle. So it's been, what is that now, four months. So I'm not sure if something else has gone on. I mean, talking with Spencer before he went down there, I mean, he was good spirits. The thumb felt good. It was completely healed. It was just a matter of getting built back up. So, yeah, I mean, I actually thought about going to West Palm.

The Astros play the Marlins here in a couple of weeks or early August. And I was like, you know, if I could squeeze in a day on either side of that series, go down there. Because you're right, there's tons of guys down there. There's Tchasmich's down there now. This is kind of new this year where you start sending guys to West Palm. I mean, they haven't been, they've been doing that in years past with guys with long-term injuries, especially pitchers who were, you know, coming off Tommy John. go down there. But now they're sending, you know, like Jacob Melton, Luis Giorme, there's a few

others I'm not even remembering. There's like a whole team of guys down there in West Palm. So, yeah, I might poke my head in there and see what's going on. Stay tuned. Astros five games ahead of the Mariners, and we know the slew of injuries. Just how you think the AOS shapes up, how much of a threat do you think the Mariners will be? And do you still have the Astros as a strong favorite for the division. I think there'll be a big threat because they're finally playing up their capabilities or they're hitting the ball better. They have an MVP candidate behind the plate.

They have a better rotation than the Astros right now. So, yeah, I mean, I think they're going to make this really, really interesting. But still, the Astros have a five-game lead, which is pretty significant. They got a shot coming out to break here to if they can win two or three, get back up to six. And the Astros also have the benefit of having the second easiest schedule the rest of the season. Only Cleveland has an easier schedule. So I know they haven't exactly played as well, it seems like, against bottom feeding teams as they have against contenders, you know, sweeping the Phillies, taking two out of three against the Cubs and winning a series against the Padres and the Tigers.

But still, you'd rather have an easier schedule than the hardest schedule down the stretch. So that's something that's going to benefit them as well. And what we talked about earlier, they're going to go. going to get healthier. As long as they don't get injuries, more injuries, there's reinforcements coming and that's going to help them as well. And yeah, I still think the Astros win this division. Last and most importantly, your thoughts about cold play. Co-play, you know, surprisingly, I kind of like, I kind of like co-play. I could probably tell you about 10 songs that I know. And if you came to me with tickets to a concert, I'd probably go.

I don't think I'd pay for it. But yeah, they're not bad. I've known you for 20 plus years. I couldn't be more to support any one human being than I am right now. That's a little surprising. Now, I'd rather go to a George Strait concert. There you go. All right, you've rallied a little bit. Hey, safe travels to Seattle,

and we look forward to visiting with you again in the same spot next week. Thanks for the time as always. All right. Thanks, guys.