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June 4, 2025 • 13 mins
Brian Bogusevic Joins The Show After Astros Win 7 Out Of Their 10 Games To Take #1 Spot In AL West
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hour number two of the Matt Thomas Show with Ross
here on a Sports Talk seven ninety ros Viril with you.
Matt Thomas out today and tomorrow. We've got the news
at noon coming up. We have ain't nobody got time
for that last show bum Mass up coming up at
eleven thirty. But right now, please to be joined by
one of my favorite guests on the week of the

(00:24):
Whole Station, Brian Bogaceevic Space City Home Network joins us
Wednesdays at eleven o'clock. Brian, let's just start with what
we saw last night on the hill. Not the Paul
skiing side, poor guy. Eight innings, a one run ball
and you can pick up the l But Lancecullors Junior
back to back quality starts.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
How about that from a guy who's been through such
a long journey.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
Yeah, it's been a it's been a ride, hasn't it.
I think it's, you know, very important to remember that
once a guy is deemed healthy and active, that that's
not necessarily he's the guy who is going to be
you know, that's kind of the last step in the process.

(01:09):
There's still a lot of progress to me to be made.
Once somebody returns to action because I mean we've seen
Lance you know over whatever, it's six starts now. However,
many continue to get better and better and incrementally right
Like sometimes it'll be a little bit of the velocity
either being up a tick or just maintaining velocity a

(01:29):
little bit deeper into an outing or you know, having
a little bit more sharpness to a breaking ball, or
having both versions of the breaking ball working at the
same time. So there are steps to take even after
your you know, quote unquote healthy and back into the rotation.
But no, it's it's been great. I mean, he continues
to get better. He's really got a feel for the

(01:50):
off speed stuff, and you know, you had to be
fairly certain that, you know, given health, eventually that feel
for the breaking pitch, to feel for spin and varying
the shape of the breaking ball will come back because
that's kind of always what he's been a master at.
And it's you know, it's been a lot of fun
to watch, you know, a guy who's just able to

(02:11):
go out there and compete because that's what he does.
You know, at his best, what Lance mccullor does is
he goes out there and he figures out a way
to compete and it's and it's enjoyable to watch.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yes, it is.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
And it's just to me, it's such a fascinating story.
I mean, just it feels like you get to like
write a book or a movie or both about this.
It's just so fascinating and intriguing to me. The where
he goes to rehab to miss those two years. Can
you just I mean speak to to what it takes
internally from Lance mccullor's junior, it's impressive to me. The

(02:45):
mental fortitude to battle back, the way that he has
to fight off. I mean, in the back of his mind,
it's always got to be when's the next sho you're
gonna drop?

Speaker 2 (02:55):
When am I in? Next? Gonna feel some discomfort.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
And he keeps pushing through that and now he's being
successful on the mound, getting out at the major league level.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
No, it's it's crazy. I mean, just the right determination
and the willingness to stick to it and to keep
trying and keep coming back and have set backs and restarts.
You know, that says a lot about him personally, right.
It also says a lot about how much the guy
loves baseball and loves the team. Right, You know, there's

(03:23):
a lot of people in his situation who would say,
you know what, I've had my success, I've made my money.
I guess that's just over. But it's a guy who
just wants to go out there and play. I think
one thing that people don't realize about players when they
are rehabbing is it is a completely different experience from

(03:44):
a player who is playing in terms of you are
very often removed from the team. Not not that you're
not welcome around the team, but you know your work
is going on early before the rest of the team
is out there doing their work. You know, sometimes you're
staying behind at a spring complex to do your rehab,
and once the season start and the affiliates start, those
places are cleared out and there's a lot of time

(04:07):
in an empty clubhouse by yourself. And when you're in
an empty clubhouse and you're sitting there with with you know,
an ice pack on your elbow, and you're just there
with your thoughts about, man, I've got another injury. You know,
another six months, another throwing program started again. You know,
you can start having some thoughts that you don't want
to have about where you stand in the game, and

(04:29):
to be able to fight through that along with the
physical stuff of trying to just get your arm back
healthy and get your body back healthy to be able
to go out there and get out at the major
league level. It is a long, long journey. And you
know that's why I you'll see it throughout baseball is
when guys come back from long sets, from long injuries,
right Tommy John stuff, Nie things, you know, where they

(04:52):
miss a year, everybody across the game is happy to
see them back, and there'll be guys giving them a
little nod and a little you know, hey, you know,
good for you, because they realize what it takes.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Last bit on lansmac Colors one hundred and two pitches
two starts ago, ninety six pitches in a last star.
Do you think that's a function of there has been
some starting pitching injuries and we maybe need to push
him a little bit, or do you think independent of
all that this is where he would be.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
I don't think they would push him to a place
that they that they weren't comfortable doing, just because you know,
all of a sudden, there's another injury and we're going
to throw you to one hundred pitches instead of eighty
pitches that wouldn't be that wouldn't be a safe thing
to do for him. I do think they're willing to
take him to his limit a little more and maybe

(05:40):
expose him to a lineup, you know, a third or
fourth time, or expose him to a matchup that maybe
they would they would fire on into the bullpen given
full strength in the rotation, just because that's what they need.
I mean, they absolutely not only do they need a
quality pitcher to go out there and get out for them,

(06:00):
they need people to eat innings. And you know what
you're going to get from Hunter and fromber that in
that sense, but at the back end of the bullpen,
back end of the rotation, you don't really know what
you're going to get. So when you've got a veteran
like Lance, who you know, can he can go out
there and he'll figure out how to get through an
inning and he'll figure out how to maybe you know,
he'll give guys a different look the third time through
then maybe he gave him the first time. So there's

(06:22):
probably just a little bit more trust in if we've
got to push somebody, he's going to be the guy
that we're going to do it. Versus, you know, the
rookies who are just trying to figure out how to
get out in the big leagues for the first time.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
Former Astro and Space City Home Networks Brian Bogosvik with
us here on Sports Talk seven ninety Josh Hater sixteen
saves also has a win. The Astros have thirty three wins.
He has factored in that way in seventeen of them.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
Obviously huge. And what do you think has been the
difference for him this year?

Speaker 3 (06:56):
You know, I don't I don't think there's any difference
in his stuff. Right. His pitches look pretty much the same.
He is executing them very well that you know, that's
needless to say. There's probably just a little bit more comfort.
You know, obviously second year with the team, you'll be
a little bit more comfortable, even even for a guy

(07:16):
who's coming back to an organization, so you hit the
ground running day one. I will say this, there's there's
a little bit of a different pitch mix. He last
year got very fastball heavy and for good reason. You know,
it's one of the best pitches in baseball, and it's
batting average against on it was, you know, one sixty something,
but there's a little bit more of a fifty to

(07:38):
fifty split between the fastball and the slider. And you know,
if if you're facing Josh Hader as a hitter, you
almost have to guess right. If you're going to give
yourself a chance, you've got to guess. And if he can,
you know, tip the scales just a little bit more
to where you know it's not seventy thirty and it's
fifty to fifty, and you're going to guess wrong a
little bit more often. He's going to be that much

(08:00):
more effective because you know, both of those pitches are
as good an individual pitch as there is in baseball.
You put him both together and you don't know what
you're getting an any given situation. Good luck, and you
know hitters haven't had a whole lot of it at
Canston this year.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
I'm interested on your perspective in the whole Jordon Alvarez saga,
the way that it played out, and it seemed like
they weren't forthcoming with a lot of information. Then it
sounds like he's coming back, and then of course now
it's a fracture. How much do you feel that this
is possibly on the Astros Dana Brown admitting that they
may have rushed him back from from the initial hand soreness.

(08:40):
How much of this is kind of a freak accident
thing that could happen to any team, and especially with
the context that we kind of went through something similar
with Kyle Tucker last year.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yeah, I think I think all of those things put
together makes for you know, a lot of people who
are unhappy with the situation all around. I'll say this.
I'll start by saying, I had an injury at one
point in my career where an X ray showed no
fracture and then two weeks later and MRI showed a fracture.

(09:11):
So I've been down that road and I know that
that happens. I think probably from the outside looking in
fans standpoint, you're probably most frustrated with the communication. But
I mean, the fact of the matter is is besides
designating an injury, when a team puts somebody on the
injured list, teams don't owe anybody anything to say. And

(09:34):
I know that's frustrating, but that's just kind of the
way it is. I think from a player standpoint, from
what I would think, Jordan is feeling the worst thing
to have from an injury standpoint, as a player is
not knowing right, feeling that something is wrong, but not
having a diagnosis, not having a definitive timeline. And at

(09:55):
least now that it's been found and they know, then
you know, he he can kind of be at ease
with where this process is because, you know, going out
there and saying, man, it just doesn't feel right, and
then hearing from the training staff that, well, we think
it is right is really frustrating. But you know, hopefully
we've moved past all the ambiguity and it's defined, and

(10:17):
because I mean, we just need the guy back and
that's the bottom line. And he wants to be back,
the team wants them back, the fans want him back,
and once he is back, hopefully we can just put
it all the rest. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
Now, I was also intrigued by the angle I saw
in the Channel of Rome article about Jordan getting a
second opinion through through his agent. Is is that something
that is that is very common or is that something
that we should we should raise an eyebrow on.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
No, it's very common. I mean a lot of a
lot of times when players get second opinions, it's because
their first opinion they didn't like it. You know, you
see it all the time when when guys are having
Tommy John, they're getting a second opinion because the first
one said they needed Tommy John. Right. That's but players
do that just because again, you want to know and
if and if things are coming back inconclusive or you know,

(11:03):
you're you're hearing it might be this, or it might
be that. You know, there's a lot of really good
doctors out there, and the more people you can have
looking at things, the more different sets of eyes and
kind of different experiences that you can have looking at it,
the better, because the end of the day is we
want to get it figured out so that we can
figure out how to fix it. And so no, I
don't I don't really take a whole lot away from

(11:24):
from players getting second opinions because until until you know
something definitively you you want to have you know, as
many people looking at it as possible.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
Very short sample size so far with Jacob Melton, but
a couple of good abs last night, including working that
walk against Paul Skeens.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
No, absolutely, and that's and that's the you know, from
an offensive standpoint with him, everybody's always talked about the
tools and just you know, controlling the strike zone more
to allow the tools to play. And again, like you said,
very small sample size. But but if he can do that,
I mean, if he puts the ball in play, he

(12:03):
can really run. So he's gonna get on base. He's
a he's a strong, kind of explosive athletic guy, so
there's going to be popping that bat and if you can,
you know, not chase pitches out of the zone. He's
got some tools that will play in the zone. And
you know, having another left handed option is huge for
this team. Having a guy who can really go out

(12:25):
and run him down in the outfield. You put put
him out there with Jake Myers and Cam Smith to
other guys who can really go get it. Yeah, it's
a really good addition to the roster.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
Brian boga Sevic appreciate the time as always Space Sin
City Home Networks own and a weekly guest eleven o'clock
Wednesdays here on a Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
Brian appreciate it. We'll talk to you down the road.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
All right, thanks guys.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
All right, there you go.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
Great stuff with Brian boga Sevic. As always, you want
to wrack to anything he had to say. Good stuff
on lances with Colors Junior, Josh Hayter, jord on injury
as well. You can get in seven pet three two
one two five seven ninety. Is your phone number seven
one three two one two five seven ninety coming up
at noon
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