The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian McTaggart Talks Astros Pitching and Their Postseason Outlook

Episode Date: September 3, 2026

Brian McTaggart Talks Astros Pitching and Their Postseason Outlook

Cougars travel well together. And we brought a Cougar with us to the morning show. Matt and Ross in the morning. Proud University of Houston graduate. By the way, it was such a star apparently last week at the... We had the Cougar coach this morning, too. Yeah, Willie Fritz on this morning. Going to replace some of that coming up in the bottom of the hour.

And McTaggart's hosting alumni parties in New York City for Cougars. Is that right? How crazy was that good together, Brian? He picked up the check, too, right? Yeah, big money there, McTaggart, right? I was a late arrival. to this city field. There was a group of UH alum, so I decided, you know, Mike Paday, it told me about it.

So one point in the middle of the game, I said, I'm going to go out there in the outfield and, you know, say hello. So as soon as I go out there, the TV cameras put everyone on the whole group on TV, and unexpectedly, I was on TV. So bad timing on my part. But yeah, it was a fun group out there. Yeah, and you didn't have a suit on, did you? So you kind of underdressed for the entire situation, correct? Oh, I was wearing my unusual jeans and a collared shirt, and, you know, what you see is what you get. But it was pretty warm day.

So there were, I didn't see any suits out there, but I blended in, okay. I got you. Hey, why does this team play well so well against 500 teams and above? Well, I don't know. That's a good question. And, I mean, it seems like they missed for years and years. I mean, we saw it last year at the end of the year. They had the A's and they had the Angels at the end of the season to try.

to get in the playoffs and they couldn't get it done. But maybe if they can make the playoffs, maybe this will be a good omen for them because, you know, they'll be playing nothing to 500 and above teams. But it's a head scratcher, just like anytime they say pitcher who's struggling like they did the last couple of days against Burnett and Davis Martin, they get on track. Both of those guys go five and two-thirds scoreless, and both of them have been really scuffling. So these are questions that I think we'll be answering for eternity. Last night, Hayden Wisniewski not only got you deep in the game, the pitch count was economical,

and that's the one thing, even despite the fact the team has been its head above water and still holding on to first place, is that even in victories, Brian, this bullpen has been taxed. It has been taxed really almost since the jump. I guess the question is, with these last couple of days, with Hunter Brown doing it, is there any relief in sight? You have to trust these guys that hopefully go game. longer you can, but you can't throw Okrit out there every single day.

You did get Blue Ball out there. What is the state of the bullpen if you were to go to each individual guy? How are they feeling as we approach this month of September coming up? Yeah, I think they're all probably pretty tired. You know, Okrit's pitched a huge workload. He's among the innings leaders. No one's pitched more innings in relief than Bluebaugh.

He's up to what, I think, mid-80s, 86-87 inning, something like that. that. Peter's throwing a lot of innings since the All-Star break as well. I mean, he'd be fresher because he missed the first couple of months. But, you know, this is the time you've got to dig down. And, you know,

now we see Blue Ball pitching a little more in the high leverage pitch one inning last night. It's kind of in that high leverage mix now. But that's why Joe did what he did on Tuesday. He sort of, it seemed like he almost like punted that game. I mean, you could tell like

by the fourth or fifth inning that it was not happening. The offense was not going to score. he put tang out there and then it was I think it was by the time he might got out there was it was five to one and or three to one I can't remember but just eat some innings and let's save a couple of these arms for the next couple of games and it worked last night and now you're going to have a couple of those guys are available today as well and if you can pull it off you win you win three out of four so yeah I definitely got the sense on Tuesday you threw through a couple of your less effective relievers for multiple. the innings just to give those guys some rest and if you come back great if you don't oh well we'll try to win the next two if this team is going to round into a late season surge starting pitching obviously going to have to be a part of that how encouraged are you by the last start from hunter brown and hayden wessky or how much are we going to use the phrase of the year we need to see it more consistently well you'd like to see it more consistently but you know they both have a pretty good little run

going on here. West Neski, every start gets a little bit better. I mean, just a strike thrower. Worked at a great case last, and that was so great to see after the previous two nights where you had 10 walks on Monday. You had seven on Tuesday, but yesterday, you know, Westusky only walked a couple of it. He was throwing strikes, got a bunch of quick outs, a bunch of quick innings. So, yeah, I mean, you're going to need him to keep doing that. And, you know, it seems like Hunter Brown has turned a corner as well. The foreseen fastball command is back, a real chance for him to pitch a big game today and win a series.

But somebody else is going to have to step up. They're going to need, whether it's Pecco or Blanco to get it together or somebody else just to give them a couple of deep starts to your down the stretch because you can't just rely on a couple of starters and hope you can stack wins

because that usually doesn't work out very well. Brian McTaggartastroes.com, mowably.com, our weekly guest here on Matt and Ross in the morning. What is the latest on the Mike Burrough situation? Yeah, after his last AAA outing, he just wasn't really recovering as well as he thought. And, you know, he felt something in his shoulder. So he went and got an MRI.

It showed there was some inflammation in there, no structural damage. So he's taking some antibiotics. And, you know, he considered that good news because he's not shut down. He's still throwing. And he still hopes that he can get back. you know, by the end of the year, and I talked to him for a while yesterday, and he was really frustrated because he had worked on some things mechanically in AAA, and he was, he said he thought he was throwing the ball as well as he had all year. I mean, he made three rehab starts and pitched pretty well in all three of them. I mean, he had nine scoreless innings in the first two, and I think the second one gave up a run or two. So he was feeling really good about where he was at. So a little bit frustrating to get injured at that point when he was on the cusp of coming back. I mean, he would have started on Tuesday if he was going to be healthy. but good news in the fact that he's not shut down. They think maybe after a week or two he can get back on the mound

and maybe he can be an option. I know that probably doesn't excite a lot of people because he has a 5-990 RA, but a little too early to give up on Mike Burroughs yet. And I guess if he thinks he found something with the way he pitched in AAA, you know, it's worth a shot to give him a starter to and see where he's at on the big league level.

Brian, where is Joe when it comes to lineups? I know this has been a massive stretch of games, still a few more before they get a next off day. Where is the overall, I need to give Altuve a day, I got to give Alvarez a day, I need to mix and match my catchers. Where do you see anything in terms of getting a rest in for these guys

before the final stretch? Yeah, I think we'll see it for Alvarez. Definitely Al-Tube just had a day the other day. And I think that's probably it for him. They have every Monday off. three Mondays they're going to have off. So they once they get through this stretch of 13 in a row, they do have

one day a week where they'll be off. But Alvarez looks like a guy who could need some rest. But man, it's so hard to take him out of that lineup because other teams just respect him and fear him so much. And even when he's not hitting homers, he's getting walks. He had a couple singles yesterday. He's still a force in the middle of that

lineup. And the lineup is so thin to take him out as really tough. But I think maybe they find a spot to do that one more time. maybe paying you one more time, but again, I mean, you're talking about, you know, the two best hitters in your lineup. So we're to the point to where, you know, the guys are going to have to play every day. And once you get to the playoffs, it's pretty rare. You would play three games in a row.

You're going to play two and have a day off and then travel and so forth. So they're almost to the finish line. But I certainly think that a guy like Alvarez, you know, could use a day and, you know, maybe even Paredes. I mean, he seems like, you know, he plays, you know, every day as well. They added a new pitching set of eyes since the last time you and I spoke on the radio. Your thoughts about what kind of adjustments could be made with this pitching staff, knowing they were about 90% done with the season here. Yeah, I thought it was interesting, bringing in Brent Strom.

It was sort of an out-of-the-box move, but certainly one I think was worth a shot. And Strom, you know, immediately when we talked to him in New York, identified one thing. He's like, they have to throw first pitch strikes more. Now, on Monday and Tuesday, they walk 17 batters, which is exactly the opposite of what he wanted them to do. But yesterday was a good example. Hayden Wisniewski threw 19 first pitch strikes to the 25 hitters he faced. It just changed everything.

You're getting quick outs. You're getting quick innings. And lo and behold, your start goes seven innings, which is pretty rare, it seems. But there's some guys I think he can really benefit. I think Burroughs is one of those guys. He had Burroughs. knew him from when they were both in Pittsburgh. but Burroughs seems like a prime guy for some of that straw magic dust.

And now that Burroughs is off his rehab assignment and here with the team, I'm sure they'll get a chance to work together. But, you know, Tram's got a great track record. But again, you know, Verlander, Granky and Garrett Cole aren't walking through that door. He's got his work cut out for him with some of these guys. But hey, man, it's worth a shot to see if he can help at least a couple of these guys get a little bit better. Speaking of Magic Dust, how much fire is this? there to this Carlos Correa smoke, because it felt like when it was first talked about, there was no chance, but it sounds like things are ramping up.

And then even if he does make it back, he mentioned he doesn't want to DH. I mean, how does it fit? Well, I think it's very real now. He's going to go to Florida this weekend. He'll be there a week to 10 days. You know, the Astros are in Tampa next weekend, not this weekend, but next weekend. I could see a scenario to where maybe he crosses the state from West Palm. He goes to St. Pete and plays the last.

you know, 12, 13 games or so. But what does he fit? I mean, that's a problem that will be good to have. I mean, yes, he is going to play third base when he comes back. There is no doubt about that. He's not going to DH. He's not going to play shortstop. He's going to play third base.

So Joe's just going to have to get a little bit creative. We saw Jordan Alvarez play the outfield on consecutive days, Saturday and Sunday, New York for the first time. And that wasn't by accident. I think they were giving them a look out there, getting, you know, kind of telling him, hey, this is something you might have to do here in the last month of the season, has played consecutive games in the outfield to open up the DH for Altovae,

if you put Paredes at second or Walker, if you put Paredes at first. And also, Correa is not going to play every single day coming back. It will probably be, you know, a couple on, one-off, and you'll have to see how he feels. But it's a good problem to have to get another bat in there. So I'll be interested to see now he's going to ramp up the workloads, game-like situations, side-to-side. running the bases, see how that ankle responds.

I don't think he's completely out of the woods yet. I don't think it's 100% we'll see him back, but he's getting closer and closer and he keeps passing these hurdles. And I think there's a real shot now. We could see him in the lineup in a couple of weeks. We talked to you again next Thursday. It'll be finishing up a series of Philadelphia

to wrap up our visit here today. Do you think we'll get a sense of who this team will really be in terms of, yeah, they're struggling against the subparred teams, but they win against the good ones. let's be encouraged about what they might do come playoff time or do you think that there's going to be enough people that are going to say oh yeah Philadelphia is good Tampa Bay is this weekend they are who they are and we don't really really care if they make the playoffs or not you know I'm just thinking from a fan perspective on this I think we'll know a lot more after the Ray series you know they go to Philly they have Arizona at home this weekend they go to Philly who is now pushing the Braves in the NL East I mean they've totally turned it around or maddingly and then they go to the which has, you know, quietly been the best team of the AL all year. So we'll have a lot better idea when they leave Florida,

what this team is and where it's at. But I know looking in the stands, the crowds have not been really big, so I don't know if the fans are not getting behind this team. I mean, it's not really your traditional first-place team. It doesn't look like a first-place team. It doesn't feel like one. But at the end of the day, they are, and they have a chance to win a division here.

But they're going to really have to here over their next 12 or 13 games, their schedule is really tough. The Mariners have a really easy schedule now, but, I mean, they are five games back, so they got a lot of work to do, and they can't get out of their own way. So, you know, I'm not really sold on them, and, you know, the Rangers are on their heels, but they go to Tampa this weekend as well. So Astros just need to do what they've been doing, win series. Get two out of three, three out of four if they can do that today, and then they won't

have to worry about what anyone else does.