Brian Bogusevic Says Astros Got 'Framber At His Best' In 3-0 Win Over A's

Brian Bogusevic, former Astros outfielder and Space City Home Network analyst, joins Next Up following the Astros defeating the Oakland Athletics 3-0 Wednesday at Minute Maid Park. The Astros have won three out of the four-game series against the A's and are on a four-game win streak. Framber Valdez started on the mound and threw seven scoreless innings. Seth Martinez pitched aided in last innings to combine for a two-hit shutout. The Astros got "Framber at his best," Bogusevic said. The Astros move to a 18-25 record and are 5.5 games back from the lead in the AL West. "It's still a deep hole to climb." Prior to the win streak, disgruntled fans were unhappy with the Astros slow start to the season, and first year manager Joe Espada was put to blame. However, Bogusevic values Espada's late-game decision-making. "It' all about matchups," and as a player, "you're looking for a sound approach to managing a game," and Espada has "inspired confidence" with his strategies. The Astros latest success against the A's is bittersweet because Ronel Blanco was ejected before the start of the fourth inning Tuesday when the third base umpire found a foreign substance on his glove. Blanco has since received a 10-game suspension. Bogusevic does not dispute that Blanco broke the rule, but pushes MLB to "make it more uniform" after similar instances around the league saw different results. "Enforcement creates a whole lot of grey area for something that should be black or white."

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Feeling good on a Thursday. Talkingto Stros Baseball, we go to the
guest line now, as Stros aregoing to win the series, we know
versus the Oakland Athletics as they tookcare of Game three last night. Somebody
knows a little something about Stros BaseballFor his weekly one, Brian Bogus seven
of Space City Home Network, Bogie, Good morning. I presume you're in

(00:22):
a much better mood this time thisweek because I was pissed off last week.
It's crazy, but I think thismight be the first week that there's
been more wins than losses since thelast time we talked. Wow, damn,
really you could be right about that, all right, So let's get
down to the brass tacks. Lastnight, in particular Fromber looking more and

(00:46):
more like himself. This is nowtwice here recently that he appears to be
back in the form. What didyou see from Fromber last night? When
the bats wasn't a clicking Fromber andthe bullpen made something happen. Yeah,
last night is Fromber at his best, And honestly, he's been this way

(01:07):
pretty much every start this year minusSeattle, and there's been a couple of
starts where the results haven't been beengreat. But what I'm what I look
for when I watch fromber is iseverything down, is everything moving on a
downward trajectory. And you don't wantto see that fastball that kind of runs
flat on his arm side. Andwhen he's just starting the ball in the

(01:30):
middle and it's either sinker down tothe arm side and the curve ball down
to the back foot of a righthanded hitter, you get exactly what you
saw last night, which is aton of weekly hit ground balls and a
lot of strikeouts. And it's hardto put a rally together when nobody ever
hits the ball out of the infield. Yeah, it's it's so it's so

(01:51):
funny, you know, because wetalked about that that opening day, you
know, the walks. He hadthe six walks against the Yankees. But
I remember talking with a couple ofpeople said he wasn't bad, like he
had his stuff was there. Hewas just it was it was tailing off
and all that, and then heseemed to write the ship from there.
And you're right, I mean,the one, the one hiccup against Seattle,
it's gonna happen. But yeah,I mean, that's vintage Frober right

(02:12):
there, and that's back to backseven innings from him, and this is
what you need from this guy.And honestly, Brian, I mean the
runout Blanco thing aside, Like,once you get Bloco back, if Frober's
pitching like this and JV's JV andwe'll see what if Hoveer can get back
into form. And then eventually hereHot or Katie like, yeah, this
whole thing starts to settle down,and all the panic and everybody running around
with their hands in the air ofthe first month, it settles down a

(02:36):
little bit. Now you still gotwork to do. You still got to
build dig out of this hole.And as good as you've been, you
still got to get back, youknow, building back to five hundred.
But yeah, man, it's it'snice to be in this spot where everything
kind of seems to be settling downnow. No, you're right, it's
it's still a steep hill to climb. Right. The hole that was Doug
was pretty deep. But the bestway to get out of that hole is

(02:59):
to run out a starting pitcher everyday that you know is going to give
you a good chance to win.And when you're trying to fill holes and
just stop the bleeding with guys comingup from Triple A, you know,
every couple of starts. That's reallydifficult to do. But we're getting to
the point now to where with whatFromber has been all season, and with

(03:21):
what JV has shown since he's beenoff the injured list, if tonight's going
to go a long way with ChristianJavier, If Christian Javier looks right,
you're all of a sudden looking ata period of time where these guys could
go two three times through the rotationwhere you're just getting good start after good
start, and that's the way teamsgo on runs. Teams don't go on
runs by you know, hitting thecover off of the ball for a month

(03:44):
straight. That's usually a series orfour or five games at a time.
You can get a stretch of startingpitching that will cover fifteen to twenty games
where they can carry you, andall of these guys being right puts them
in a situation where that can happen. Brian former draft selection, first round,
What was that oh four five bogiecame over a million years ago?

(04:05):
Five million years ago overall. Ifyou see Bryan around the ballpark, though
he looks like he could still playbo You gotta keep how many innings you
got left in your bogey? Zerozero? All right? Uh, speaking
of guy that has a lot ofinnings left in him, I saw some
video of him stopping the automobile andjumping out the car and showing MLB Network

(04:30):
what he's doing with his batting stands. Alex Bregman has a woken since the
last time we spoke. What areyou seeing from Breggie? Can he keep
this up? Is he back?George Bottle wasted no damn time getting him
back up into the top four slot. Yeah, well, I mean,
you hit three hummers in two days, you're gonna get put back in the
middle of the lineup that quick name. You know. The funny thing is

(04:51):
is like as bad as it getsfor hitters, right, you can be
up in the batter's box and feellike you're completely lost. I'm never going
to get a hit again. Anythingthis guy throws is going to get me
out. But really you're not allthat far away, and a lot of
times you're just looking for a feel, something to feel right that sets you
off. And this hole pull theknob past the baseball thing, which is

(05:15):
you know, just reinforcing staying insidethe ball, not getting out around,
trying to sweep the ball to yourpull side, but keeping the barrel inside
the baseball. That is the thingthat has apparently clicked for Alex Bregman,
And all of a sudden, helooks more confident. You know, when
when he fires off his swing,it doesn't look like he's feeling for the
ball. It just looks like he's, you know, shooting the barrel through

(05:38):
the zone and just happy with whereverthat contact is going to be. So
it looks like it's back. Itlooks like it's for real. Now,
is he going to hit the balllike this for the rest of the season.
No, nobody will, but youknow, as long as he can
get an up that can match thatdown and then kind of level off for
the rest of the season. Now, all of a sudden, you've got

(05:58):
another middle of the bat, middleof the lineup bat that is being productive.
And you see what happens with thisoffense when you just get one or
two guys that are supposed to bethat kind of hitter getting to getting in
and doing that production. It's interesting. Uh, you know, a couple
of weeks ago at a lot ofI mean we were literally having a discussion
of if a spot is fired,who's the interim. You know, Steve

(06:21):
Sparks has kind of been the levelheadedguy of Mondays when he's been on John
Salisbury saying, look, I likea lot of the moves the spot has
made, like he's not just restingon his laurels. He's changing the lineups
he's given, you know, thepinch hit opportunities, and specifically the other
night, you know, some peoplewere like Caratini pitch hitting for Dubon,
but it works out. I meanthe whole, the whole reasoning with the
runner at third and you know,lefty versus righty hitter. I mean,

(06:45):
evaluate now where we are on JoeSpotted, because I just feel like a
lot of the decisions he's made havebeen the right calls. It's just been
a lot of those opportunities the playerjust didn't come through. Yeah, you
know, making moves specifically pinch hittype moves or lineup matchup moves, and
really you know some of the relievermoves not not the like stabilized back of

(07:09):
the bullpen. We know your role. It's all about matchups. It's all
about looking through information looking through dataand finding favorable matchups to put guys and
the team in position to be successfulmore often than not. The caveat is
that you know it's only a moreoften than not situation and sometimes it's not.

(07:30):
And just because it doesn't work inan individual moment doesn't mean it was
the wrong move. As long asthere's a sound logic behind it and sound
thinking behind it, it's the rightmove. And you have to continue to
think in that way and continue toput guys in those matchups. And you
know some of the some of thepitching moves early on didn't work out,

(07:50):
but a lot of the pinch hitlineup moves early on have worked out,
and you know there's definitely a reasoningbehind it, and we can see a
lot of the logic. So asa player, that's all you're looking for.
You're looking for a sound approach tomanaging a game and then just consistency
to do it over and over andthen everybody can feel comfortable with what's going

(08:13):
on. But you don't want tosee, as you know, a manager
who just sporadically and on whims makesmoves and everybody's kind of sitting there like,
well, what are we doing now. I think a lot of what
Joe has done is a worked outbut be also just you know, inspired
confidence in that there's sound reasoning behindeverything. All right, Bogey, we'll
get you outing on this one.I wouldn't be doing my job if I

(08:35):
didn't ask you, rone Blanco,Ronee Oblanco. Oh, you know that's
what we do on this show,Boga. I know you get excited about
coming on here with us because likea stand is going to be on one
today, Roneo Blanco, he cheatedus and the team by definition. We'll
talk more about intent and all ofthat. Overall, your thoughts on the
ruling, the process, the inconsistencieswith Y'allmmoto and who else was them on?

(09:01):
Gordon? Who was last year?Yeah? Yeah, all right,
her mind, this old sticky substancestuff, what we at all right?
So so it's a it's a mess. The whole thing's a mess. By
letter of the law, black andwhite, Renelle Blanco broke a rule and

(09:22):
is getting the punishment that goes inaccordance with that. But the larger situation,
this just highlights the inconsistency and sortof subjectivity with how the rule is
interpreted. And enforced. You knowthis, the quote unquote substance, the
rosin is a legal substance if it'son his right arm, but since it

(09:46):
was in his left arm, it'snot legal. And you know the sticky
substance was determined to be in hisglove but not on his pitching hand.
Well, it's something's in your glovebut not on your hand. That doesn't
really affect the game, and otherplayers have been given the opportunity to change
gloves or wash hands or do whatever. So I think from an individual standpoint,

(10:09):
you know you had rosin on yournon throwing arm. That's against the
rules. The rule was broken.But if you're looking at it from a
Major League Baseball standpoint, they needto figure out how these are going to
be enforced and make it more uniformbecause what one umpire determines to be too
sticky isn't the same as what anotherumpire determines to be too sticky. And

(10:33):
having a legal substance on your rightarm, but it's not legal if it's
on your left rm, well,how the hell are you going to get
it on your right arm if youdon't pick it up with your left hand
and put it on your right arm. So it's just it's just one of
those things that Major League Baseball does, where the enforcement is creates a whole
lot of gray area to something thatshould be black and white. That is

(10:56):
the voice of Brian Bogus Savic droppingby for his weekly every Thursday at ten
thirty right here on Next Up,number one sports talk show in Houston.
Bog y'all't know if you heard thator not. Hanging out with fleeting Gordon
Connedy McGovern's contributing as well following him, won't you, Astros fans? He
is at Brian b r I AN Boga Sevic b O g U s

(11:16):
E V I C. Maybe oneday, when I become somebody and get
drafted to the majors, I'll getsomebody on radio to spell out my name
correctly. Boga. We'll appreciate it, brother,