July 23, 2025 • 12 mins
Brian Bogusevic Joins The Show After Astros Win The First 2 Games Of The Series vs Diamondbacks
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Eleven oh one Sports Talk seven ninety Matt and Ross
with you here and our regular Wednesday visitor, always a
friend of the show is Brian bogos Evic of Space City,
Home Network and the He is here to join us
to talk about what is an incredible run for a
man with such a little experience from going against the
Rangers in Seattle pitching staff to going to Arizona and
(00:22):
owning the building. Brian, I think everybody, including Bryce Matthews
would have to be stunned at the way things are
turned around in his first ten major league baseball games.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, I think, you know, any any rookie coming in
for the first time is just trying to get to
a place to where, Okay, I feel comfortable, I can contribute,
I feel like I'm playing my game. But to go
you know, a couple of games stretch where I'm basically
carrying the offense and winning games for a team that
is trying to just find ways to win games. At
(00:53):
this point, it's a crazy turnaround. I think. Also, you know,
it's not really a soft landing spot for you first
introduction to major league pitching when you're seeing you know,
the Rangers starters and the Mariners starters, so that that
might have something to do with it also, But yeah,
it's it's happened quickly.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
When you hear about a player who may not be
ready yet, And that's exactly Joe A. Spot didn't say
it bluntly like that, but he's like, you know what,
still a work in progress, still has things to learn.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Is that difficult for a player to get that call
because he obviously wants it, but at the same time
he knows there are still things intricacies about second base,
intricacies about you know, maybe being a better content hit
or not striking out as much. That's a lot for
a young man to handle. But really the team needed
him so badly because guys were getting hurt on a
day to day basis unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, I think anybody if you're if you're asking a
guy who's in the minor leagues, would you rather be
in the major leagues when you don't feel like you're ready,
then wait another year or so and feel like you're
one hundred percent ready. They're going to take Option A
for sure. But I think a lot a lot of
the transition has to do with communication from the top,
(02:07):
what's expected from you, what do we know that you
can do. Here's what we think you still need to
work on. Here's how we're going to continue your development
at this level, because we think you're still a player
who's learning a new position and a guy who's still
you know, doesn't have a full amount of that bats
to become the hitter that we think you're going to be.
So so communicating those things and letting them know that
(02:28):
it's okay, you're going to make mistakes and we're going
to work through them. I think it also probably helps
that he can, you know, look out behind him and
right field and see Cam Smith as a guy who
made the team out of spring training with even less
at bats and less experience and no experience in the outfield,
and see what his development has been this year, and
know that, you know, this is an organization and a
(02:50):
team that has a coaching staff that is not just
you know, major league coaching staffs used to be we're
here to take these finished products and win games. And
it's a different story now, and they still have a
ton of player development to do at this level. And
you look at the guys, You look at Omar Lopez,
you that Tony Parischka. I mean, Joe Spotted himself has
a background in player development, specifically with infielders. So yeah,
(03:14):
there's a lot to be learned. But as long as
the player knows that, and as long as it's clearly
shown to them how they're going to get from A
to B two C, it makes it easier.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Bogey. Let's look at this as a macro perspective. The
team struggled getting to the All Star break, did not
look good in those first two games against Seattle, and
then they put together three consecutive wins that just once
again shows you for the umpteenth time that Major League
baseball season is a marathon. But you know what's been
consistent through all this bullpen has been largely excellent, and
(03:44):
we're just seeing the series. In this series alone, the defense,
no matter who you're putting where, is bailing this team
out and saving this team one or two runs per game.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
It's been really the unsung hero of the entire season.
You know, when you can depend on and first of
all making all the plays, making the routine plays and
not putting yourself behind the eight ball by making errors
and costing yourself base runners and runs. But also you know,
maybe maybe pushing it a little bit and taking some risks.
I mean Mauricio Dubond throwing you know, a runner out
(04:16):
at home from from the cutoff position, or them going
after a lead runner at third base yesterday and a
groundball or cutting down a run at home. It's really
become the opposite of a big data type of baseball,
where you know we're going to put together the best
roster and feel like we're the better team and if
we just play the game long enough, over time, we're
(04:36):
going to get the wins. They're not paying that anymore, right,
They're they're taking chances. There are how many buns have
we seen over the course of the last couple of
weeks of guys just trying to get on base put
pressure on defense. They're trying to create a style of
game where we know it's going to be close, we
know it's going to be low scoring. But we think
with our bullpen, with our defense, with the way we prepare,
with the matchups, we think we can exploit that you
(05:00):
we will crack under the pressure and we won't or
we will make the play that you're not going to
make and find a way to win a game. Three
to one or four to two or whatever it is.
And if you're playing close games and where one or
two plays is going to flip it. Those are the
kinds of things. You know, if somebody's out there and
they've got an ace on the mount who's shoving, you're
gonna win no matter what. If you've got a lineup
(05:20):
one through nine who's banging the ball around, you're probably
going to win no matter what. But you know, if
it's a handful of plays, it's going to come down to,
you know, a pitch or two from a reliever maybe
being in a higher leverage situation than there used to being,
and are they prepared for that, or a guy, you know,
making a snap decision to make a throw home instead
of first base, and is he thinking about it ahead
(05:41):
of time? And they've been really good at that stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Brian boga Sevic, Well, it's here on Sports Talk seven
ninety and escac Parade is going down in the lineup,
and we've talked a lot about how he sees more
pitches than everyone else. So with him gone, Brian, if
you were saying on the Astros staff, how much would
you try to stress to the other guys to do
that how much of that is in your mind in
(06:04):
the batter's box, or you kind of want guys to
stay within themselves.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yeah, I think it's something that is probably needs to
be talked about and just understood. But it's more about
picking and choosing times. You don't want somebody to completely
change their approach. You don't want somebody going up there
trying to be a hitter that they're not. You know,
go out there and executing that bat the way you
think is going to give you the best chance. It's
(06:30):
not going to tell jose L TV to go out
there and start taking pitches, but there are going to
be times when maybe you need to slow the game
down a little bit. You know, if you look at
Hunter's last start, he had really good in the first
two innings. He had the long third inning and the
long fourth inning, and in between that the Astros had
a five pitch inning from there at bat, so he
(06:50):
was out there for like a thirty pitch inning and
the twenty five pitch inning with only five pitches in between.
You know, you don't want to run into those types
of situations. It might happen every once in a while,
but recognizing hey, guys, remember every once in a while,
maybe we're going to need to see a pitch. Maybe
you're going to need to use your time out early
on in that bat, not necessarily when you want to,
but just to kill some time. It's something that needs
(07:13):
to be aware of. But no, you're not going to
go to anybody individually and ask them to change their
style of hitting just because you know the guy who
had the longest that batches down.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Now, so Cam Smith has been taking over the leadoff spot,
has been struggling at the plate since then, you see
anything different from him or just maybe a coincidence with
the lineup spot And how much does that even matter?
Is that just something we like to talk about in
fans and media with the lineup spot more than people
who are playing.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
The game now. I don't.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I don't think it's a lineup spot that's kind of
you know, outside of the maybe the first inning where
he might feel it a little bit differently. It just
is what it is. Honestly, I look at specifically for
Cam and young players in general, it's this time of year, right,
you're you're one hundred games in, it's just dragging, dragging, dragging.
There's really no end in sight, and you know, you
(08:04):
just come off the All Star breaks, so maybe a
little bit of a refresh. When we were on the
last homestand the Cleveland, Texas home stand, there were some
times when he looked fatigued physically and a little bit
mentally where it just looked like the season was getting
to him a little bit. And that's normal for young players.
It's certainly normal for a guy who played a fifty
game college season last year. And it's typically a situation
(08:27):
where you know, you would say, hey, you're going to
take a rest, You're going to you're going to be
down on you know, you're not going to play this
game on Sunday, because we offer off game off day
on Monday. We'll get you two days off your feet
and come back refreshed. They can't do that. They they
literally need everybody they have, so he hasn't been able
to get those built in breaks that that they could
provide a young player. He's out there just trying to
(08:48):
grind through it, and you know, it takes a physical
toll on you, it takes a mental toll on you,
especially when you know you're not swinging it the way
you want and you have to go out there day
after day after day. So I don't know that it's
necessarily a function of where he's hitting in the order.
I think it's more just a function of it's a
long season and he's doing it for the first time, Bogie.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Is there any sort of intangible breaking point with what's
going on right now, because again, it doesn't make sense
seventeen players on the injured list. You are bringing up
guys that are probably not gonna be considered long term
major leaguers. You've got one of your young stars who
probably needed more seasoning at Triple A coming up and helping.
(09:28):
Is there anything that you're thinking about beyond just, hey,
the competition's gonna get harder. Well, guess what. The competition
got harder two weeks ago in Los Angeles and they
went there and swept the series. Is there any in
the back of your mind you're thinking about as you
watch this team play the next two to three weeks
before some of these guys come back and make this
(09:48):
a full, wholesome Houston Astro team again.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
You know, it's it's in the back of my mind
right that it's got to catch up to them at
some point, just because that many injuries to that many
significant players have to But there's nothing that I can
think of or point to to say, well, this is
when it's going to happen, because it should have happened already.
I mean, you just it's been the majority of the
season at this point. You know, they keep adding up
(10:14):
and adding up without really getting anybody back from any
of these injuries. You know, they've gone through the different
stretches in the schedule, and I mean just just look
around the league and the teams other teams that are
experiencing injuries like this. I mean, look at the Dodgers
and the resources that they have from a money standpoint.
They built maybe the deepest roster in all of baseball
(10:34):
over the offseason. They've got one of the best and
deepest farm systems, and they're feeling their injuries already, and
the Astros keep plugging along. So in the conventional wisdom
and my common sense says, yes, it should catch up
to them at some point, But honestly, at this point,
maybe it doesn't. I don't. I really can't figure it out, all.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Right, So I'm going to ask you this for the
second to last time, if you were having a glass
of wine with general manager Dana Brown, and he said,
all right, Bogie helped me out here. What do I
need to go get? This is the second the last
time I ask you this this year. What would you
tell him?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Well, I think it's changed now, you know, my my,
My initial thinking for you know, the first month or
so leading up to the deadline was the relief on
the offensive standpoint is going to come from within, right,
That's going to be when Jordan gets back. That's going
to be whenever, if Jake Myers comes back. But now
(11:33):
I'm now with Parretes down and you know, we don't
have a timeline on it, but it's probably not, you know,
going to be just a week or two. I think
I think you might need a bat more than than pitching.
At this point. It looks like Erraic Getty's close, uh,
Christian Javier looks like he's progressing pretty well. Luis Garcia
is a little bit behind them. So you know, maybe
(11:54):
that maybe I think this, I think the need has
shifted more from just up pitching and you can always
use more pitching to you've got to add to the
lineup somewhere. If it's a long term thing for parades.
Maybe it's somebody who can slot right in that third base,
or maybe somebody who has some sort of you know,
positional versatility that you can float around. I think it's
(12:17):
a bat. Now it's probably more offensive driven than it
was last week at this time before parades went down.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Great Stubb, as always, friend, Thank you very much for
the time, and we'll talk again next week, which will
be the thirtieth, and that'll be one diway from the
trade deadline. Thanks smoking for the time as always.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
All right, thanks guys,
Eleven oh one Sports Talk seven ninety Matt and Ross
with you here and our regular Wednesday visitor, always a
friend of the show is Brian bogos Evic of Space City,
Home Network and the He is here to join us
to talk about what is an incredible run for a
man with such a little experience from going against the
Rangers in Seattle pitching staff to going to Arizona and
(00:22):
owning the building. Brian, I think everybody, including Bryce Matthews
would have to be stunned at the way things are
turned around in his first ten major league baseball games.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, I think, you know, any any rookie coming in
for the first time is just trying to get to
a place to where, Okay, I feel comfortable, I can contribute,
I feel like I'm playing my game. But to go
you know, a couple of games stretch where I'm basically
carrying the offense and winning games for a team that
is trying to just find ways to win games. At
(00:53):
this point, it's a crazy turnaround. I think. Also, you know,
it's not really a soft landing spot for you first
introduction to major league pitching when you're seeing you know,
the Rangers starters and the Mariners starters, so that that
might have something to do with it also, But yeah,
it's it's happened quickly.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
When you hear about a player who may not be
ready yet, And that's exactly Joe A. Spot didn't say
it bluntly like that, but he's like, you know what,
still a work in progress, still has things to learn.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Is that difficult for a player to get that call
because he obviously wants it, but at the same time
he knows there are still things intricacies about second base,
intricacies about you know, maybe being a better content hit
or not striking out as much. That's a lot for
a young man to handle. But really the team needed
him so badly because guys were getting hurt on a
day to day basis unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, I think anybody if you're if you're asking a
guy who's in the minor leagues, would you rather be
in the major leagues when you don't feel like you're ready,
then wait another year or so and feel like you're
one hundred percent ready. They're going to take Option A
for sure. But I think a lot a lot of
the transition has to do with communication from the top,
(02:07):
what's expected from you, what do we know that you
can do. Here's what we think you still need to
work on. Here's how we're going to continue your development
at this level, because we think you're still a player
who's learning a new position and a guy who's still
you know, doesn't have a full amount of that bats
to become the hitter that we think you're going to be.
So so communicating those things and letting them know that
(02:28):
it's okay, you're going to make mistakes and we're going
to work through them. I think it also probably helps
that he can, you know, look out behind him and
right field and see Cam Smith as a guy who
made the team out of spring training with even less
at bats and less experience and no experience in the outfield,
and see what his development has been this year, and
know that, you know, this is an organization and a
(02:50):
team that has a coaching staff that is not just
you know, major league coaching staffs used to be we're
here to take these finished products and win games. And
it's a different story now, and they still have a
ton of player development to do at this level. And
you look at the guys, You look at Omar Lopez,
you that Tony Parischka. I mean, Joe Spotted himself has
a background in player development, specifically with infielders. So yeah,
(03:14):
there's a lot to be learned. But as long as
the player knows that, and as long as it's clearly
shown to them how they're going to get from A
to B two C, it makes it easier.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Bogey. Let's look at this as a macro perspective. The
team struggled getting to the All Star break, did not
look good in those first two games against Seattle, and
then they put together three consecutive wins that just once
again shows you for the umpteenth time that Major League
baseball season is a marathon. But you know what's been
consistent through all this bullpen has been largely excellent, and
(03:44):
we're just seeing the series. In this series alone, the defense,
no matter who you're putting where, is bailing this team
out and saving this team one or two runs per game.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
It's been really the unsung hero of the entire season.
You know, when you can depend on and first of
all making all the plays, making the routine plays and
not putting yourself behind the eight ball by making errors
and costing yourself base runners and runs. But also you know,
maybe maybe pushing it a little bit and taking some risks.
I mean Mauricio Dubond throwing you know, a runner out
(04:16):
at home from from the cutoff position, or them going
after a lead runner at third base yesterday and a
groundball or cutting down a run at home. It's really
become the opposite of a big data type of baseball,
where you know we're going to put together the best
roster and feel like we're the better team and if
we just play the game long enough, over time, we're
(04:36):
going to get the wins. They're not paying that anymore, right,
They're they're taking chances. There are how many buns have
we seen over the course of the last couple of
weeks of guys just trying to get on base put
pressure on defense. They're trying to create a style of
game where we know it's going to be close, we
know it's going to be low scoring. But we think
with our bullpen, with our defense, with the way we prepare,
with the matchups, we think we can exploit that you
(05:00):
we will crack under the pressure and we won't or
we will make the play that you're not going to
make and find a way to win a game. Three
to one or four to two or whatever it is.
And if you're playing close games and where one or
two plays is going to flip it. Those are the
kinds of things. You know, if somebody's out there and
they've got an ace on the mount who's shoving, you're
gonna win no matter what. If you've got a lineup
(05:20):
one through nine who's banging the ball around, you're probably
going to win no matter what. But you know, if
it's a handful of plays, it's going to come down to,
you know, a pitch or two from a reliever maybe
being in a higher leverage situation than there used to being,
and are they prepared for that, or a guy, you know,
making a snap decision to make a throw home instead
of first base, and is he thinking about it ahead
(05:41):
of time? And they've been really good at that stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Brian boga Sevic, Well, it's here on Sports Talk seven
ninety and escac Parade is going down in the lineup,
and we've talked a lot about how he sees more
pitches than everyone else. So with him gone, Brian, if
you were saying on the Astros staff, how much would
you try to stress to the other guys to do
that how much of that is in your mind in
(06:04):
the batter's box, or you kind of want guys to
stay within themselves.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yeah, I think it's something that is probably needs to
be talked about and just understood. But it's more about
picking and choosing times. You don't want somebody to completely
change their approach. You don't want somebody going up there
trying to be a hitter that they're not. You know,
go out there and executing that bat the way you
think is going to give you the best chance. It's
(06:30):
not going to tell jose L TV to go out
there and start taking pitches, but there are going to
be times when maybe you need to slow the game
down a little bit. You know, if you look at
Hunter's last start, he had really good in the first
two innings. He had the long third inning and the
long fourth inning, and in between that the Astros had
a five pitch inning from there at bat, so he
(06:50):
was out there for like a thirty pitch inning and
the twenty five pitch inning with only five pitches in between.
You know, you don't want to run into those types
of situations. It might happen every once in a while,
but recognizing hey, guys, remember every once in a while,
maybe we're going to need to see a pitch. Maybe
you're going to need to use your time out early
on in that bat, not necessarily when you want to,
but just to kill some time. It's something that needs
(07:13):
to be aware of. But no, you're not going to
go to anybody individually and ask them to change their
style of hitting just because you know the guy who
had the longest that batches down.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Now, so Cam Smith has been taking over the leadoff spot,
has been struggling at the plate since then, you see
anything different from him or just maybe a coincidence with
the lineup spot And how much does that even matter?
Is that just something we like to talk about in
fans and media with the lineup spot more than people
who are playing.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
The game now. I don't.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I don't think it's a lineup spot that's kind of
you know, outside of the maybe the first inning where
he might feel it a little bit differently. It just
is what it is. Honestly, I look at specifically for
Cam and young players in general, it's this time of year, right,
you're you're one hundred games in, it's just dragging, dragging, dragging.
There's really no end in sight, and you know, you
(08:04):
just come off the All Star breaks, so maybe a
little bit of a refresh. When we were on the
last homestand the Cleveland, Texas home stand, there were some
times when he looked fatigued physically and a little bit
mentally where it just looked like the season was getting
to him a little bit. And that's normal for young players.
It's certainly normal for a guy who played a fifty
game college season last year. And it's typically a situation
(08:27):
where you know, you would say, hey, you're going to
take a rest, You're going to you're going to be
down on you know, you're not going to play this
game on Sunday, because we offer off game off day
on Monday. We'll get you two days off your feet
and come back refreshed. They can't do that. They they
literally need everybody they have, so he hasn't been able
to get those built in breaks that that they could
provide a young player. He's out there just trying to
(08:48):
grind through it, and you know, it takes a physical
toll on you, it takes a mental toll on you,
especially when you know you're not swinging it the way
you want and you have to go out there day
after day after day. So I don't know that it's
necessarily a function of where he's hitting in the order.
I think it's more just a function of it's a
long season and he's doing it for the first time, Bogie.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Is there any sort of intangible breaking point with what's
going on right now, because again, it doesn't make sense
seventeen players on the injured list. You are bringing up
guys that are probably not gonna be considered long term
major leaguers. You've got one of your young stars who
probably needed more seasoning at Triple A coming up and helping.
(09:28):
Is there anything that you're thinking about beyond just, hey,
the competition's gonna get harder. Well, guess what. The competition
got harder two weeks ago in Los Angeles and they
went there and swept the series. Is there any in
the back of your mind you're thinking about as you
watch this team play the next two to three weeks
before some of these guys come back and make this
(09:48):
a full, wholesome Houston Astro team again.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
You know, it's it's in the back of my mind
right that it's got to catch up to them at
some point, just because that many injuries to that many
significant players have to But there's nothing that I can
think of or point to to say, well, this is
when it's going to happen, because it should have happened already.
I mean, you just it's been the majority of the
season at this point. You know, they keep adding up
(10:14):
and adding up without really getting anybody back from any
of these injuries. You know, they've gone through the different
stretches in the schedule, and I mean just just look
around the league and the teams other teams that are
experiencing injuries like this. I mean, look at the Dodgers
and the resources that they have from a money standpoint.
They built maybe the deepest roster in all of baseball
(10:34):
over the offseason. They've got one of the best and
deepest farm systems, and they're feeling their injuries already, and
the Astros keep plugging along. So in the conventional wisdom
and my common sense says, yes, it should catch up
to them at some point, But honestly, at this point,
maybe it doesn't. I don't. I really can't figure it out, all.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Right, So I'm going to ask you this for the
second to last time, if you were having a glass
of wine with general manager Dana Brown, and he said,
all right, Bogie helped me out here. What do I
need to go get? This is the second the last
time I ask you this this year. What would you
tell him?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Well, I think it's changed now, you know, my my,
My initial thinking for you know, the first month or
so leading up to the deadline was the relief on
the offensive standpoint is going to come from within, right,
That's going to be when Jordan gets back. That's going
to be whenever, if Jake Myers comes back. But now
(11:33):
I'm now with Parretes down and you know, we don't
have a timeline on it, but it's probably not, you know,
going to be just a week or two. I think
I think you might need a bat more than than pitching.
At this point. It looks like Erraic Getty's close, uh,
Christian Javier looks like he's progressing pretty well. Luis Garcia
is a little bit behind them. So you know, maybe
(11:54):
that maybe I think this, I think the need has
shifted more from just up pitching and you can always
use more pitching to you've got to add to the
lineup somewhere. If it's a long term thing for parades.
Maybe it's somebody who can slot right in that third base,
or maybe somebody who has some sort of you know,
positional versatility that you can float around. I think it's
(12:17):
a bat. Now it's probably more offensive driven than it
was last week at this time before parades went down.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Great Stubb, as always, friend, Thank you very much for
the time, and we'll talk again next week, which will
be the thirtieth, and that'll be one diway from the
trade deadline. Thanks smoking for the time as always.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
All right, thanks guys,
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