April 4, 2024 • 10 mins
Brian Bogusevic, former Astros outfielder and Space City Home Network analyst, joins Next Up to recap the the Astros defeating the Toronto Blue Jays 8-0 Wednesday at Minute Maid Park. The win concluded the three game series against the Blue Jays in which the Astros won two-out-of-three. Yordan Alvarez hit his first two homeruns of the 2024 season. "Yordan goes through these progressions," but "it was nasty yesterday," Bogusevic said. Jose Altuve also recorded a home run, as well as a walk and two runs scored. "He's looking to hit for power." Altuve bounced back after a base running mistake Tuesday that contributed to the Astros dropping a game to the Blue Jays. "Those are mental mistake, not physical things." Following Martín Maldonado's departure, the Astros named Yainer Diaz as the starting catcher in favor of his strong offense which has exceeded expectations. "The talent is undeniable" and "his maturity has really showed up early this season." The Astros will have a day off before beginning their four-game series against the Texas Rangers on Friday at Globe Life Field.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Astros analysts former MLBA that he isbrother doing doing well, looking good on
the television screen. There Brian Bogusbo get good morning to you on a
Thursday Morningstan, how you doing.I can't complain brother, Astros win a
series. I can relax a littlebit. I got my Jordon Avarez looking
like Jordan. I was I wasn'tconcerned, but I was like, I
(00:23):
was getting a little antsy. Iwanted Jordan to come around. What did
you see last night? I'm Jordanlooking like Jordan. Uh. You know,
It's it's funny how magnified things canbecome in the first week of a
season. You know, if aguy goes through a four five game stretch
where he doesn't look like himself inJuly or August, we don't even really
(00:45):
notice, uh, But when it'syou know, the first five games of
the season, it can be alittle bit concerning. But you know,
Jordan goes through these progressions throughout thecourse of the season where he's trying to
get out of a funk and he'shitting the ball the other way, seeing
pitches, and then it slowly turnsinto the middle of the field. It
slowly turns into him getting a littlemore elevation, and you could tell it
(01:07):
was close. There are a coupleof balls the last few games that he
just missed the center field, justmissed the right field. So it's like,
all right, as soon as hegets just a little bit more dialed
in, it's on. And itwas nasty yesterday, no question about it.
In that same vein the little bigMan, he got off to it.
I wouldn't say a slow start,but he wasn't. It wasn't as
noticeable that that top of the orderas that bottom of the order. I'm
(01:32):
talking about, you know, Yannerand Opinion, some of those other guys.
But here goes jose Al two V. Someone asked me this day and
they were talking about, in referenceto the extension that he signed the lifetime
deal, how much long did youthink two V is gonna play at this
level? It's hard to say,right, of course, because eventually,
(01:53):
eventually age is going to catch upwith anybody. But when you look at
the style there you go play thatal Tuove has, it should age very
well. You know, as he'sgotten older, he's the style of hitter
that he's become where he's become alittle bit more of a power hitter.
When he first came up, itwas two hundred hits, spraying all over
(02:14):
the field, running like crazy,beating out in field hits. But now
it's almost true power hitter style.He's looking to pull the ball, he's
looking to hit for power, andthat typically ages pretty well. And for
a guy who's you know, beenrelatively healthy throughout the course of his career,
I mean, there's no reason tothink that he shouldn't be a highly
(02:36):
productive hitter for the majority of thatcontract. And I think also in the
short term something that we didn't reallyconsider a whole lot in the new line
of construction that Joe A. Spottahas had. You know, we wanted
to get Jordan higher in the order, get him more at bass, get
him more productive. But he nowhits right behind Jose Altuve al Tuove.
(02:59):
The only way you can kind ofget to him a little bit as a
picture is if you entice him tochase out of the zone. Well,
when you got Jord on him andbehind josel two bay, you're not going
to be throwing pictures out of thezone because you don't want to walk now
two a half to track. Notso so now all of a sudden,
you've got You've got Josel Tuove ina position where pictures are playing right into
his hand. So I think we'regoing to see, you know, uh,
(03:22):
almost the best version of him thisseason in a couple of years moving
forward where he's still in his primeand now you've got Jordan in his prime
ate behind him. Somebody brought upwhile we're on that, real quick,
the al two A the couple baserunning staff foo's a couple of nights ago.
Uh. Some people are saying,oh, is that the first sign.
I was like, I don't know. I think that's more decision making
(03:43):
than it is age. So Isaid, I was gonna ask you about
that. Uh, unless you havesomething enough to add on the base run
a staffoo that that that is thatis not that is not a sign of
age, unless unless he's losing hismind. That's not a physical thing though
those are mental mistakes. Uh.You know, L two A. To
be as successful as he's been,for a guy who's been underestimated for the
(04:06):
majority of his life, you haveto push the envelope a little bit.
He's always teetered on the edge ofrecklessness with his base running and I mean,
for twelve years now, we've seenit. And first part, yeah,
it's worst part of the game,sure, for sure. And and
but the thing is he's made alot of amazing plays on the basis because
(04:28):
he's pushed it. So every oncein a while it gets to be too
much. He knows, he recognizes, he'll dial it back for a while.
But trust me, it's not goingto be the last time we see
it. You just you take thegood with the bad, all right.
I was surprised to see this morningto what you were talking about, two
veys the power right, changing hisgame, evolving his game, currently leading
this team and slugging at point seventyfive to nine, well number two behind
(04:51):
him previously number one. DS.Now we've got what a seven game sample
size all day for the Astros obviouslyfor make their way up to the DFW
area in Arlington. Yana Diaz continuesto absolutely Rake, do you have some
revisions history? Do you understand whysome of us go where we could have
(05:14):
used this in spot last season ordo you think it'll arrived right on time?
Your thoughts on Yan and das Medioricrise. The talent is undeniable,
his ability to just naturally hit,to be able to get the barrel on
the baseball, whether it's harder,soft, up, down in the zone,
(05:36):
out of the zone, it's prettyrare. And yeah, you probably
would have liked to force that intothe lineup as much as possible last year.
But you know, what we knowthat we have now is an elite
bat that plays the position where therearen't a whole lot of eleap back.
So it's a really valuable thing tohave that kind of production from the catcher
(05:59):
position. And his maturity has reallyshowed up early this season. You know,
when a hitter is a natural freeswinger like Jiner is, you're always
waiting for him to really hone inthe approach. When can you kind of
shrink the strikes one a little bit, get a little bit more selective about
which pitchers you want to attack,especially early in the count, things that
(06:20):
you can do damage on. Sometimesthat takes a couple of years for hitters
to really understand, and Yiner hasbeen really disciplined in his approach early this
season. The power has shown upwhen he's turned it loose a little bit,
but he's not chased out of thezone. He's not gotten himself behind
in counts. He's really been selectivein situations with runners in scoring position.
(06:41):
So the maturity is almost as impressiveas the physical skills. But the physical
skill that it really does remind mea bit of Altuve when he first got
here. Just a guy who cango up there and feel like whatever pitch
you throw in whatever location, hecan hit it hard somewhere. Fair point
you what did I just see?A note courtesy of MLB Stats, you've
(07:03):
probably seen this bogey. As ofWednesday night, the Astros now lead the
American League with twelve home runs.Who leads this team at home runs?
Jose L two ve Yanni Diez isobviously up there. I'm sorry, yan
and oh, I'm sorry that washit so I was looking at it.
Home runs correct, jose L twove Yanner is tied with like four other
players, So clearly the ball isleaving the yard, which is a good
(07:25):
sign. This the front end ofthis rotation, these starters, I saw
a number that I mean, thisera is crazy. Blanco, Valdez and
Javier combined for twenty one and twothird scoreless innings in the Blue Jays series.
Rotation posted one point two to ninee R Ray through its first seven
games. Obviously, renew Blanco's nohit the other night would drastically impact the
(07:50):
numbers. Nonetheless, mart I'm tryingto ask you, is your comfortability with
this middle relief and or are youconcerned about this presslee of bray hater middle
relief and bullpen and Jon So goinginto the season, the biggest question would
have been middle innings, right,how do we get from starting rotation to
(08:13):
the back end. And those guysfor the most part have been pretty good.
There have been hiccups as the firstcouple of games, but the last
probably three or four, they've beenpretty solid when they've been put into those
situations. Seth Martinez was great lastnight. Taylor Scott was great last night.
With the biggest issue being the seveneight nine. I think those three
guys combined a brave you hater,Presley, the era is over eight.
(08:39):
That's not going to last. Thatthat will not last. Those guys will
even out and be great. Soso the fact that the biggest concern coming
in has kind of been okay.I'm comfortable with the fact saying that those
three guys at the back end willbe fine. So you're kind of having
questions answered about the bullpen, butthe starting pitching has been phenomenal and the
(09:00):
biggest predictor in my opinion of successlong term over the course of the season
for this team is going to behow good is the starting rotation, and
especially with fromber and Christian Javier,it's there as good as they've looked this
early this season. This can potentiallybe a great rotation when you get Justin
berlanderback. Have those guys throwing theball the way they are back into the
(09:24):
rotation has been very good. Sowith the offense doing what they're doing and
starting rotation doing what they're doing,starting pitching and offense will drive you predominantly
through the course of the regular season. So those two things combined are really
encouraging and have been really good sofar. The words of a form of
(09:46):
Big leaguera and is alright currently doinggreat work on Space Sitting Home network as
an analyst for our astros. Hisname Brian bogus Evik, dropping by for
a weekly You want more intaeil dofollow him on Social act Brian bogus Sevic
b O g U s E vI C. Bogey. We got a
slide, Brother, get you somerest today up in Arlington. We'll talk
(10:07):
about it next week. It allright, man, appreciate it. Bogus
Sevic joining us here on your homeAstros Baseball
Astros analysts former MLBA that he isbrother doing doing well, looking good on
the television screen. There Brian Bogusbo get good morning to you on a
Thursday Morningstan, how you doing.I can't complain brother, Astros win a
series. I can relax a littlebit. I got my Jordon Avarez looking
like Jordan. I was I wasn'tconcerned, but I was like, I
(00:23):
was getting a little antsy. Iwanted Jordan to come around. What did
you see last night? I'm Jordanlooking like Jordan. Uh. You know,
It's it's funny how magnified things canbecome in the first week of a
season. You know, if aguy goes through a four five game stretch
where he doesn't look like himself inJuly or August, we don't even really
(00:45):
notice, uh, But when it'syou know, the first five games of
the season, it can be alittle bit concerning. But you know,
Jordan goes through these progressions throughout thecourse of the season where he's trying to
get out of a funk and he'shitting the ball the other way, seeing
pitches, and then it slowly turnsinto the middle of the field. It
slowly turns into him getting a littlemore elevation, and you could tell it
(01:07):
was close. There are a coupleof balls the last few games that he
just missed the center field, justmissed the right field. So it's like,
all right, as soon as hegets just a little bit more dialed
in, it's on. And itwas nasty yesterday, no question about it.
In that same vein the little bigMan, he got off to it.
I wouldn't say a slow start,but he wasn't. It wasn't as
noticeable that that top of the orderas that bottom of the order. I'm
(01:32):
talking about, you know, Yannerand Opinion, some of those other guys.
But here goes jose Al two V. Someone asked me this day and
they were talking about, in referenceto the extension that he signed the lifetime
deal, how much long did youthink two V is gonna play at this
level? It's hard to say,right, of course, because eventually,
(01:53):
eventually age is going to catch upwith anybody. But when you look at
the style there you go play thatal Tuove has, it should age very
well. You know, as he'sgotten older, he's the style of hitter
that he's become where he's become alittle bit more of a power hitter.
When he first came up, itwas two hundred hits, spraying all over
(02:14):
the field, running like crazy,beating out in field hits. But now
it's almost true power hitter style.He's looking to pull the ball, he's
looking to hit for power, andthat typically ages pretty well. And for
a guy who's you know, beenrelatively healthy throughout the course of his career,
I mean, there's no reason tothink that he shouldn't be a highly
(02:36):
productive hitter for the majority of thatcontract. And I think also in the
short term something that we didn't reallyconsider a whole lot in the new line
of construction that Joe A. Spottahas had. You know, we wanted
to get Jordan higher in the order, get him more at bass, get
him more productive. But he nowhits right behind Jose Altuve al Tuove.
(02:59):
The only way you can kind ofget to him a little bit as a
picture is if you entice him tochase out of the zone. Well,
when you got Jord on him andbehind josel two bay, you're not going
to be throwing pictures out of thezone because you don't want to walk now
two a half to track. Notso so now all of a sudden,
you've got You've got Josel Tuove ina position where pictures are playing right into
his hand. So I think we'regoing to see, you know, uh,
(03:22):
almost the best version of him thisseason in a couple of years moving
forward where he's still in his primeand now you've got Jordan in his prime
ate behind him. Somebody brought upwhile we're on that, real quick,
the al two A the couple baserunning staff foo's a couple of nights ago.
Uh. Some people are saying,oh, is that the first sign.
I was like, I don't know. I think that's more decision making
(03:43):
than it is age. So Isaid, I was gonna ask you about
that. Uh, unless you havesomething enough to add on the base run
a staffoo that that that is thatis not that is not a sign of
age, unless unless he's losing hismind. That's not a physical thing though
those are mental mistakes. Uh.You know, L two A. To
be as successful as he's been,for a guy who's been underestimated for the
(04:06):
majority of his life, you haveto push the envelope a little bit.
He's always teetered on the edge ofrecklessness with his base running and I mean,
for twelve years now, we've seenit. And first part, yeah,
it's worst part of the game,sure, for sure. And and
but the thing is he's made alot of amazing plays on the basis because
(04:28):
he's pushed it. So every oncein a while it gets to be too
much. He knows, he recognizes, he'll dial it back for a while.
But trust me, it's not goingto be the last time we see
it. You just you take thegood with the bad, all right.
I was surprised to see this morningto what you were talking about, two
veys the power right, changing hisgame, evolving his game, currently leading
this team and slugging at point seventyfive to nine, well number two behind
(04:51):
him previously number one. DS.Now we've got what a seven game sample
size all day for the Astros obviouslyfor make their way up to the DFW
area in Arlington. Yana Diaz continuesto absolutely Rake, do you have some
revisions history? Do you understand whysome of us go where we could have
(05:14):
used this in spot last season ordo you think it'll arrived right on time?
Your thoughts on Yan and das Medioricrise. The talent is undeniable,
his ability to just naturally hit,to be able to get the barrel on
the baseball, whether it's harder,soft, up, down in the zone,
(05:36):
out of the zone, it's prettyrare. And yeah, you probably
would have liked to force that intothe lineup as much as possible last year.
But you know, what we knowthat we have now is an elite
bat that plays the position where therearen't a whole lot of eleap back.
So it's a really valuable thing tohave that kind of production from the catcher
(05:59):
position. And his maturity has reallyshowed up early this season. You know,
when a hitter is a natural freeswinger like Jiner is, you're always
waiting for him to really hone inthe approach. When can you kind of
shrink the strikes one a little bit, get a little bit more selective about
which pitchers you want to attack,especially early in the count, things that
(06:20):
you can do damage on. Sometimesthat takes a couple of years for hitters
to really understand, and Yiner hasbeen really disciplined in his approach early this
season. The power has shown upwhen he's turned it loose a little bit,
but he's not chased out of thezone. He's not gotten himself behind
in counts. He's really been selectivein situations with runners in scoring position.
(06:41):
So the maturity is almost as impressiveas the physical skills. But the physical
skill that it really does remind mea bit of Altuve when he first got
here. Just a guy who cango up there and feel like whatever pitch
you throw in whatever location, hecan hit it hard somewhere. Fair point
you what did I just see?A note courtesy of MLB Stats, you've
(07:03):
probably seen this bogey. As ofWednesday night, the Astros now lead the
American League with twelve home runs.Who leads this team at home runs?
Jose L two ve Yanni Diez isobviously up there. I'm sorry, yan
and oh, I'm sorry that washit so I was looking at it.
Home runs correct, jose L twove Yanner is tied with like four other
players, So clearly the ball isleaving the yard, which is a good
(07:25):
sign. This the front end ofthis rotation, these starters, I saw
a number that I mean, thisera is crazy. Blanco, Valdez and
Javier combined for twenty one and twothird scoreless innings in the Blue Jays series.
Rotation posted one point two to ninee R Ray through its first seven
games. Obviously, renew Blanco's nohit the other night would drastically impact the
(07:50):
numbers. Nonetheless, mart I'm tryingto ask you, is your comfortability with
this middle relief and or are youconcerned about this presslee of bray hater middle
relief and bullpen and Jon So goinginto the season, the biggest question would
have been middle innings, right,how do we get from starting rotation to
(08:13):
the back end. And those guysfor the most part have been pretty good.
There have been hiccups as the firstcouple of games, but the last
probably three or four, they've beenpretty solid when they've been put into those
situations. Seth Martinez was great lastnight. Taylor Scott was great last night.
With the biggest issue being the seveneight nine. I think those three
guys combined a brave you hater,Presley, the era is over eight.
(08:39):
That's not going to last. Thatthat will not last. Those guys will
even out and be great. Soso the fact that the biggest concern coming
in has kind of been okay.I'm comfortable with the fact saying that those
three guys at the back end willbe fine. So you're kind of having
questions answered about the bullpen, butthe starting pitching has been phenomenal and the
(09:00):
biggest predictor in my opinion of successlong term over the course of the season
for this team is going to behow good is the starting rotation, and
especially with fromber and Christian Javier,it's there as good as they've looked this
early this season. This can potentiallybe a great rotation when you get Justin
berlanderback. Have those guys throwing theball the way they are back into the
(09:24):
rotation has been very good. Sowith the offense doing what they're doing and
starting rotation doing what they're doing,starting pitching and offense will drive you predominantly
through the course of the regular season. So those two things combined are really
encouraging and have been really good sofar. The words of a form of
(09:46):
Big leaguera and is alright currently doinggreat work on Space Sitting Home network as
an analyst for our astros. Hisname Brian bogus Evik, dropping by for
a weekly You want more intaeil dofollow him on Social act Brian bogus Sevic
b O g U s E vI C. Bogey. We got a
slide, Brother, get you somerest today up in Arlington. We'll talk
(10:07):
about it next week. It allright, man, appreciate it. Bogus
Sevic joining us here on your homeAstros Baseball
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