Brian Bogusevic Joins The Show After Astros Win 13-3 vs The Athletics

Brian Bogusevic Joins The Show After Astros Win 13-3 vs The Athletics

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Eleven two on the Matt Thomas showed ross time for
us to spend ten quality minutes with our friend Brian
boga Sevic of Space City Home Network. Astros dispose of
the Oakland Bays Well, I gotta hit my in myself
every time I try. That's I've done twice.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
I'm gonna bring a taser up in here.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
The A's by a final score of thirteen to three. Bogie.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
What were your.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Expectations of Jason Alexander? And I guess more importantly, did
you even know who Jason Alexander was, say, three days ago,
I was.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Quite unfamiliar with him besides his work on Seinsfeld. I
guess yes, expectations for him personally, no idea what you're
gonna get, right, It's a guy who's really new to
the organization, a guy who doesn't have a ton of
big league experience, but expectations for a picture coming up
from this Astros minor league system and what that's looked

(00:51):
like over the course of the last two to three years,
there's been kind of a shift change in what we've
seen some guys coming up. You do start to get
a general idea of guys who really understand themselves, know
what makes them successful, know how to pitch to their strength,
willing to attack the strike zone, rely on the defense,
hope the offense gives them some support, guys who aren't

(01:13):
necessarily going to go out there and beat themselves. So
that's kind of the expectation at this point.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
I mean, it feels like Brian that everybody that has
been given at least some sort of opportunity, maybe with
exception of aj blue Ball, has come up and somehow,
some way contributed. And I don't know of another major
league team at least in twenty twenty five that has
gone as deep into their minor league system to grab
guys for the spot, start for the give me five

(01:40):
innings to start a day ahead of schedule like Gussa
did a couple of days ago, and kept their teams alive,
especially when a team like the Astros have not been
with exceptional last night, a team that's been scoring a
whole lot of runs.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
No, it's it's pretty remarkable. I mean, it's been essentially
two full seasons of trying to constantly backfill your rotation
and going not just six seven deep into your organization,
but eight, nine, ten deep into your organization, and you know,
it says a lot first and foremost about the scouting department,
not just the amateur scouting, but you're seeing guys who

(02:15):
they're bringing in from other organizations, so you're pro scouting
as well. And also just the development and finding traits
that you like, guys who can pitch with their fastball,
guys who attack the strike zone, and then getting them
there and making them feel comfortable enough to do what
they were doing in the minor leagues at the big
league level. That's the biggest hurdle initially is you know,

(02:38):
you're all of a sudden standing at a major league mound.
Oh my gosh, I gotta do more. I gotta be nastier,
I got to throw harder. And they really seem like
they settle these guys right away and convince them that
they can just pitch their game, and it's worked for them.
So it's a lot of different things. It's clubhouse culture.
It's the communication between the coaching staff and the players,

(02:58):
and the players understand what it is that makes them successful.
And it's them just kind of relentlessly going out there.
I mean, it's not like they're doing this with guys
who are top ten draft picks. These are guys out
of small schools, late rounds, scrap heaps from other organizations,
and they're getting a lot out of them. And it's
just it's kind of an entire organizational effort, you know,

(03:19):
and it really what's what it does? Also, it makes
you pretty dubious of these organizational minor league rankings that
get put out every year.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Brian bogasvik with us here on Sports Talk seven to ninety. Brian,
did I just looked this up? Did you know in
your career in Colorado you hit three forty one with
a nine eighty nine ops.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
Well, I should have gotten traded there apparently, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
You should have spent more time in Colorado. I bring
that up to say this, what is it like when
you're playing The ball is obviously flying out there in
Sacramento and they scored a bunch of runs when you're
at the plate, do you just want to keep everything
normal or what is it like psychologically for you in
a place where the balls flying out like that?

Speaker 3 (03:57):
Everything everything is good? You know, when you're talking about
a place like Colorado or Arizona, you're talking about Sacramento,
Tampa now where the Rays are playing, and then you know,
there's a long list of minor league stadiums out on
the west coast where the ball really slides. There's a
lot of things that work in your favor there. First
of all, just thin air the ball travels. You don't

(04:18):
have to get it, you know, very much, to get
it out and over the fence. But a lot of
those parks are also big and spacious trying to combat
you know, the thin air, so you have a lot
of room to find hits. You know, big gaps. Outfielders
have to cover a lot of ground. They're usually playing deeper,
so you can bloop hits it in front of them.
And one of the best feelings as a hitter is

(04:42):
knowing that you can easily hit a ball out the
other way right if I just barrel the ball up
for me, a left handed hitter, to left center field,
it can carry over that sense I don't have to
do anymore. I don't have to try to pull, I
don't have to try to swing harder, I don't have
to try to elevate, and that keeps everything in line.
And then if you do catch one out front and

(05:03):
you pull it, it goes even further. But to not
have to try to get anything more out of your
swing or your approach or whatever, and just keep a
good hitting approach and then add the fact that the
ball flies, add to the fact that there's a ton
of room for hits. Those are just awesome situations to
hit him. It also helps when you're facing some teams
that have pretty bad temras as well.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
The as certainly do. But cam Smith taking advantage yesterday.
Do we temper our enthusiasm because it was in Sacramento
or did you see some really good abs there?

Speaker 3 (05:37):
I temper enthusiasm based off individual games in general, good
or bad. But when you're looking at over the course
of weeks or months, there's a ton to love about
what he's doing. If you look at those two home
runs that he hit yesterday, yes they were on off
speed pitches, but where he hit that ball right out

(05:58):
in front of the plate, where he hit it in
his swing, you know, the swing working up underneath the
ball to try to get some elevation. Those are points
of contact, and you know pitches that he wasn't getting
to early on in the season. And he's really embraced
mechanical changes. He's really embraced philosophical changes, trying to get

(06:19):
more aggressive, trying to get the bad head out front.
Those those are mindset things. And to do it not
only at such a young age and so quickly, but
also he was asked to make these changes before he
had ever really failed, right, Like, He's been an awesome
player his whole career. He got drafted in the first
round out of college, He tore through the minor leagues,
he made the major leagues in his first spring training.

(06:41):
Why would you change? Well, the coaches came to him
and said, Hey, if you're going to hit here, you're
going to have to do X, Y and Z and
to buy in before you have any real real struggle.
But I know it wasn't, you know, tearing the cover
off the ball from day one. But to kind of
preemptively make adjustments like this, it's pretty remarkable and says

(07:02):
a lot about just character and why the Astros would
be willing to push him as hard as they have
this year.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
A couple more minutes here with Brian Bogasvik on Sports
Talk seven Honi Bogie. We're seeing dh for al Tuove,
We're seeing left field, we're seeing second base probably perhaps more,
and I think I brought this up to you a
couple of times. Is this the strategy they should be
going with Jose is to kind of not necessarily keep
him always not an alert or trying to change things up?

(07:28):
But is it mainly about what the lineup is around
him that makes the decision a where to put him?

Speaker 3 (07:34):
I think so, I think that the plan. It's Look,
he's not kept in the dark about anything, right when
when you are a player of his stature and when
you're in an organization that is as open with communication
as the Astros are, He's he's certainly kept in the
loop on any everything. So it's not that you don't

(07:54):
have a role and you're just floating around. It's that
your role is to float around, and it's in nord
or to allow us to maximize offensively when we feel
like we need to MAXI maximize defensively when we need
to play a hot hand. You know, Mauricio Dumont is
hitting as well as he has all seasons, so we
want to keep him in the lineup. So maybe that

(08:14):
needs more left field just whatever it is we need.
You know, he's kind of the cog that gets moved
around to facilitate all those things, and number one, it
takes a selfless player, which everybody knows he is, but
it also takes really good communication and trust between player
and coaches, and that obviously exists as well. So yeah,

(08:35):
I think that is the plan now. If anything ever
materialized where there had to be something more concrete, I
think he would be open to that. I think the
coaches would be open to that. I don't think anything
is off the table at all. So yes, as of
right now, I think the plan is just day to day,
matchup to match up. You know, you're going to be
the guy that we move around to get the most

(08:56):
out of what we need that day.

Speaker 1 (08:57):
And that's maybe premature to ask this now because a
still six weeks away from the trade deadline. But if
you're going to four and a half game lead in
your division, and you already have a minor league system
that has been used with current players now, and you
weren't necessarily deep at a lot of positions, and your
two or three guys that you absolutely want to keep
a hold of are non tradable. If Danas said let's

(09:18):
go have a glass of wine and a hamburger somewhere
and said Brian, what do you think about what we
should do about the deadline right now as we speak,
And we can obviously change this conversation in a few weeks,
But what do you think they need if they're going
to take that next step from being a team that
potentially wins the American League West to a team that
could knock off the Tigers the Yankees in the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
Yeah, I think there's it's kind of too too faceted
at the trade deadline. Are you thinking more about we
need help to get to the playoffs, or you know,
we need help to win the division, or is it
we need help to get us into a position to
where we can make a run at of title. We
feel like we're going to be in the playoffs, we
need help to run the title. And if you're talking

(09:59):
about that, you're talking about going in and acquiring high
end a high end bat, high end pitcher, high end reliever.
And I don't know if you have the willingness or
the assets at this point, after you know, ten years
of buying up the deadline to go out and do that.
But if you're in a point to where you know
the Mariners and the Rangers, they're still kind of hanging around,

(10:19):
and we want to kind of maybe put ourselves over
the top on a on a depth basis and try
to try to put ourselves in a better situation. For
one sixty two, can you add somewhere kind of in
the middle, And I think that can be done probably
more easily in pitching, you know, can you find somebody
who slots into the middle of the rotation and take
some of the burden off of these young guys. I

(10:42):
think the I think the answers from an offensive standpoint
are in house, Like you're not going to go out
and find anybody better than a healthy yord On or
Christian Walker getting getting right or Yiain are getting right right,
Like those answers are are are at home. You're not
bringing anybody to jump those guys in the batting order.
But you can't find somebody to go in and slot
in the midas. So if where if that's where it
ends up being, I think that would be the movie

(11:04):
you're also, I mean, you're not going to bring anybody
to be at the front of the rotation when you
got Stromber and Hunter up there either, Bo.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
Did great work. As always, Thank you for the time,
my friend. We'll do this again next week and enjoy
the rest of the series and we'll talk with you.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
Soon, all right, cool, Thanks, we got it.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
Brian Bogasvic with a Space City home network with us
every Wednesday here at eleven o'clock.