Brian Bogusevic Joins To Talk At Bats & Yordan Alvarez Injury

Brian Bogusevic Joins To Talk At Bats & Yordan Alvarez Injury 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In Tampa tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Plus Brian Gobogus ef it's becoming a major television star
and Space City Home network last night the Astros. How
about this. We're sitting here in late May, and that
is crazy. Brian Bogus, I think that was the first
back to back road victories of the Local nine this year.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Yeah, apparently you can do that. You can go out
and win two in a row when you're not playing
at home. I just found that out.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
How about that?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
You tell me Nu Geran and you all of us
were not in Tampa yesterday, but we've all been to
Soarber Interfield before. It's a nice spring training ballpark and
they try to put lipstick on the pig. But it
still had a very gimmicky spring training field even as
we were watching it on your network last night.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yeah, it just you know, doesn't look the same, especially
you get some of the high shots and then you
know there's nothing in the background behind the stadium. It
just looks weird. And you know, in terms of you know,
spring training ballparks, it's about as nice as you can get.
And those fields play so differently when it warmed versus

(01:00):
early in the spring. I've been down to do some
rehabbing in the spring and summer months down in Florida
at times, and it's like, oh man, the ball doesn't
fly like this in spring training, So there's going to
be some crazy numbers put up at that field once
it really warms up.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
You know, there was a huge not a question mark,
but a huge bit of uncertainty about Essak Preidies. I mean,
you've had Alex Bregman at the corner spot for all
the years, home runs, macho defense, the gold gloves, the
big hits, and we just didn't know because he had
been well traveled Tampa, Chicago to Houston. Tell me if

(01:39):
you remember what you thought of Estoc when the trade
went down, and what you think of him now that
we've seen him wearing Astro's gear for the last couple
of months.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Yeah. I mean, I don't think I've enjoyed watching anybody
more this season than estok parades. He's one of those
guys who, having the chance to watch him every day,
you can really appreciate how good he is. And I
knew that the hitter profile kind of matched up right
a pull heavy, right handed power hitter. Obviously it plays

(02:09):
well here at home, but it's it's more than that.
It's how well he works at back and controlled the
strike zone. It's how often he takes information from one
at bat and immediately applies it to a next at bat.
You know, he hit that walk off home run on
the home stand and basically hunted a pitch that he

(02:30):
saw in and at bat the night before off of
that reliever. He hit a home run, you know, right
before they left at the end of the home stand,
in his second at bat of a game, and it
was hunting the pitch that he was attacked with in
his first at bat. And it's just like how slowly
the game moves, how cerebrally he works is at back.

(02:52):
You know, you think of poll hitter and the first
connotation is, well, he's going to be super aggressive, he's
gonna cheat, he's gonna swing early, he's going to be
you know, just opening up and trying to let it fly.
Is probably going to chase a ton. It couldn't be
more opposite. It's just a guy who who knows what
he has to look for in order to make his
swing work, and he executes his at backs as consistently

(03:15):
as you know anybody I've seen he.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Has been the power source for this team in recent days.
The middle of the lineup. I mean, Bogie, you know,
you're not supposed to win baseball games on the road
when you're three, four or five hitters combined to go
over twelve I did last night.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
No, And I it's weird to why you know we do.
We look at the box score every day in the
postgame show, and when it pops up and you see
the four four four right in the middle, it's like, man,
how did we how do we even get by with this?
But they've been figuring it out. I mean a lot
of it has to do with how good the bottom
half of the lineup has been, how consistently good they've been.

(03:53):
And of course now you got Pina and Parades yesterday
bunched up at the top, so you do have a
little bit of length from turning the bottom over and
getting to the top. But I mean, you're not going
to consistently produce runs and consistently win if you're not
getting anything out of three, four, five. And Guy's got
to get going. You've got to get yrd on back,
you know, having him healthy and in the middle of

(04:16):
that somewhere will certainly go a long way, but it
would be nice to see the big backs, you know,
go off. We need some games where the offense just
carries the team. Give these pitchers a little bit of
breathing room.

Speaker 4 (04:28):
You mentioned the back end of the lineup, Cam Smith,
the part of that nine hits in his last seven games.
What have you seen from him?

Speaker 3 (04:35):
Really competitive at bats? It's it's it's hard when you're
a young player who's working on things which you know
we've talked about. You know, all the adjustments that he's
trying to make, trying to get started a little bit earlier,
trying to move his contact point to go into the
game and not be thinking about mechanical adjustments, right, and
if you're if you're trying to take cage swings into

(04:57):
a live at bat like you are dead. And he's
done a great job of going out there and he
just competes and it's not always perfect, but he's always
going to battle. You know, he's got he's got a
pretty good handle on the strike zone. He's working his walks,
he's getting pitches. He's not missing mistakes too. You know,
when when he gets a hanging breaking ball or a

(05:17):
hanging change up like he did yesterday. He's on that
pitch and he hits it hard, and he's living off that.
He's shooting the fact ball the other way. So he
has a pretty good idea of what he's able to
handle right now, and he's just out there competing his
butt off, which is all you can ask from a
young player. You know, put in the work early and
then just go out there and figure out how to
try to how to get on base.

Speaker 4 (05:36):
Brian bogas Cevic was here on a Sports Talk seven
ninety jord and Alvarez still not in the lineup. Just
in general, the hand injury, what do you know about
what you've heard about it and how does that exactly
affect him, And obviously they are trying to limit the
possibility of reinjury, taking it slow with him.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, I don't I don't know much about this injury.
You know, like it's like a strain muscle on the
top of the hand. Typically, when when you think of
a hand injury, you know, hand being sore, it's from
getting jammed and kind of the inside of your hand
blows up and swells up. But that's not what it
sounds like he's dealing with. So you know, I don't
really know. I don't have a good handle on what

(06:16):
it is he's feeling, but I do know this. If
your hands are compromised, it's going to be really difficult
to hit. It's not like I've got a sore ankle
or my back's a little tight. I'm going to fight
through this. You got to get it to one hundred
percent because number one, you're just not going to be
the same. Your back speed's not going to be the same,
your control of the barrel's not going to be the same.

(06:37):
You can very easily fall into some bad habits trying
to overcompensate. And you know, especially when we're only a
quarters away through the season, you know, getting to ninety
percent and then getting out there is not a good idea.
You want to get it to one hundred percent. So
number one, he's right, and also that he stays right
and it's not something that has to deal with for

(06:57):
you know, four hundred at bats moving forward.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
When he does come back, and Keratini and Diez have
been the lineup at the exact same time a lot
in the last week or so, one dhing and one catching.
Would do you think the Astros should catch carry that
third catcher as a backup plan, or do you think
that should go back to the two catcher system?

Speaker 3 (07:13):
And they have got going you know, I've thought about
this a bit. I think you're they're probably going to
go back to the two catcher system. And Joe has
actually been you know, as willing as any manager to
use Keratini and either a DH roll or a pinch
hit role even when they carry two catchers, and I
think it's probably wise to continue doing so. He's just

(07:37):
he's honestly, he's added a lot, He's added a lot
of balance to the lineup. He's added a lot of
good at bats in the lineup. It's going to be
difficult to try to sandwich, you know, try to force
him in there, because the DH spot is probably going
to be occupied more often than not between one of
Jordan and Jose Altuve. But if you can get you know,
at the very least some decent pinch hit opportunity, I mean,

(08:00):
Karatini has been you know, up there with with the
Jeremy paaneyes and the Jake Myers of guys who've given
consistent at that. So I don't think they'll carry the
third catcher just because you have to make a move
that you probably don't want to make to facilitate that.
But I think you can still find ways to get
Karatini at bats.

Speaker 2 (08:19):
Brian, You know, look, this Astro team has won three
of their last four and back to back road games
talked about, and they're getting a little bit oper five
hundred and still very very competitive in the American League
West and now the wild card chase as well. But
if there's been anything that's been consistent this entire season,
it's been the fact that the offense has been absent
more time than has been present.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
So what does a manager do.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
He shakes a lineup up, He uses different guys, he
changes guys in a batting order. You have been in
that major league clubhouse before, you have been going to
the ballpark and seeing your name in different spots in
a lineup. Does that where on a player on a team?
Do you or does the player sometimes have to understand that, Hey,
look we've gone through a thirty forty to fifty game stretch.

(09:00):
We're not producing like we think we should. I don't
blame my skipper for making these adjustments on a day
to day basis.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Now, I think for the.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
Vast majority of players, they understand and are fine with
things like that. You know, especially when you're given a
long enough leash, you don't want to see a manager
making panic moves or to feel like he's just kind of,
you know, throwing shots in the dark to try to
get something, when there's thought behind it, when there's communication
behind it. I mean, everybody, everybody in the clubhouse knows

(09:31):
who's slinging it well, who's not, who's struggling, who's starting
to come out of it. So, really, what you want
to know as a player, you know, when am I playing,
how consistently am I going to be in the lineup,
so I know how to prepare and then where you're
at in the lineup that really doesn't matter so much.
And when you have, you know, the leader of the
team switching positions and moving from the leadoff spot to

(09:54):
the two hole now to the three hole. Who I
can't imagine anybody is really going to speak up and say, hey,
I'm not okay with this moving around when you've got
jose Al Tube being perfectly.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
Fine with it and speaking moving around. Wrap up our conversation.
One of the things that we've talked about on this
show about why this team is as competitive as they are,
despite the fact the offense and not been great, is
because the pitching has been good. The bullpen's been outstanding.
The defense, Brian has been fantastic. Especially when you've got
two corner outfielders that have never played the position before,
you haven't been able to settle on second base. I mean,

(10:25):
that's usually a recipe for being a bottom third team
in baseball, and the Astros have kind of bucked that trend.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
No, and the defense I think has really slown under
the radar at not just they've they've been solid all around.
They've been spectacular at times. And you know, Parades and
Walker being added at the corner. Walker is really good
over there at first base, and a good first baseman
makes everybody in the infield better. Parades has been more

(10:51):
than expected. Defensively, I mean, we knew he was solid,
but his seat and his movement in short spaces is
even better. And in the outfield, I mean, Tuvay has
been fine. You know, he hasn't had any of the
plays like he did in spring training where it's been like,
oh man, that's kind of a disaster type of play.
And Cam Smith i can't tell you how impressed I

(11:11):
am with him. He's gone from okay. He's getting the
hang of it. He looks pretty good out there in
right field too. He is a very good right fielder.
I mean he covers a ton of ground, he can throw,
he's in good positions. You know, he's thinking about where
the ball needs to go as he's approaching the ball
to get himself in a good throwing position. So yeah,
the defense has been really good. And that's one of

(11:32):
the things that has what the Astros have been when
they've been really good, has been solid fundamentally on defense.
And it really shows up when you get teams that
come into town who aren't and then you notice what
it looks like when the team's not very good. And
we've seen a defense this year that has been really,
really good.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
Christ stuff has always my friend.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Thanks for the adjustment in time, looking forward watching you
the rest of this week on Space Hitting.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
We'll talk again next week. I guess you got it.
That's Brian bogus Evic with us year on Sports Talk seven.
On you