August 27, 2025 • 11 mins
Brian Bogusevic Talks Line Up After Astros Lose First Game Of The Series
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Four Sports Talk seven ninety. We start our number two
with our regular wins the guests. He is the analyst
on the Space City Home network. We say hello to
Brian Bogus seven. Bogie. Look, the worst teams in sports
are always going to be the best teams occasionally, especially
in baseball, because that's what they do. They usually win
fifty to sixty games. With that being said, it felt
(00:22):
especially painful because of you had your ace on the
mound and you had your power hitter back it. The
air of the balloon was pretty quick at dyke In
Park last night.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, you know, we said on the pregame show. With
as much adversity as the teammate had a fight through
and all the stuff that they had to overcome, it
finally felt like things were lining up in their favor.
There's a lot of stuff going for them coming in,
whether it be the offense getting it going in Baltimore,
your back hunters on the mound. You know, you got
the worst team in baseball coming into play, and it
(00:56):
just feels like it missed opportunities right like you know,
you see it all the time I'm in individual games.
You missed opportunities to score runs and it comes back
to bite you. This is, you know, the scheduling equivalent
of second and third nobody out and they didn't take
advantage of it.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
So the big question mark has been of us last
night a couple of walks for Jordan, which has always
been pretty good at doing. That is the protection behind him.
I know, many years ago we were growing up, we
talked about lineup construction a lot. It feels like we
don't talk about it nearly as much here in twenty
twenty five, generally speaking. But let me ask you, how
(01:34):
do you protect him from getting on base a couple
of times because other teams are like, we're not going
to pitch to.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Him, Well, you got to have run producers behind him, right.
If you're pitching around somebody, that inevitably means there's going
to be opportunities with runners on base behind him. And
you know, Christian Walker had those opportunities yesterday didn't work out.
You know, if you look at the body of work
for Christian Walker over the last two months, basically he's
(02:01):
his numbers are very similar to what they were last
couple of years. In Arizona, the guy we thought we
were getting, you know, he drove in a bunch of
runs on the road trip. Did it happen yesterday? No?
But you know, as of right now, he's the guy.
He's the guy who, you know, before Yordon came back,
was your best option as a run producer. So now
you stick him behind yord On and hope that a
(02:21):
couple of chances he can cash in on it. And
then all of a sudden you got to pitch to
the jord On.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yeah, that's all I was gonna say, Brian. I mean,
you know, Walker was so encouraging in that Baltimore series.
He was, you know, hitting home runs, and it was like,
all right, maybe he's getting going here. And then you know,
an zero for three night last night. I just you know, again,
maybe it was just you went up against a pitcher
that's feeling himself right now. It's so funny. I was
looking at Tanner Gordon, what do you give him, like
ten runs two weeks ago to Arizona and then he
(02:46):
goes one run against the Dodgers, one run against the Astros.
So sometimes you just run into a guy who's just
pitching well. But I think that's the biggest thing to
Matt's point, is Okay, Jordon's back great, But yeah, if
teams are going to walk him, you need somebody to
driving those runs. But Christian Walker has just been so
inconsistent all year. I'm just I'm worried about him being
the guy behind your.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Nun maybe, but certainly have to give it more than
one game to really dissect it. I mean, if you
look at the opportunity. Yesterday, he hit a ball I
forget which inning, it was, maybe the fifth or sixth
inning he lined out to left field to end the
inning with runners on basis. The ball had an expected
batting average over nine hundred. It was just a good
play right out a guy. So you know, you can't
(03:30):
just say you went over. It's not working when the
guy you know hit a line drive that could have
easily gotten down his first at bat, the inning that,
you know, the end of the first inning, it was
a good pitch to hit. He barreled, it just got
under it under, it flew out the center field. You know,
as long as it's not looking overmatched, as long as
it's not hey, they are targeting you and attacking you
(03:51):
one specific way because they have found a weakness that
they know they can go to time and time again.
If he's you know, in a good spot swing wise,
if he's getting good pitches they hit. Let him go
out there for more than a couple of games and
really see, because you know, he's he's produced runs better
than most guys on the team. I mean, I think
(04:11):
there's you know, RBIs with two outs. He's at the
top of the American League. He's got you know, a
high percentage of RBIs to games over the last two
months or so. So he's been getting it done, but
certainly didn't yesterday starting pitching.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
It's it's a weird time right now. Look, we know
Hoavier is working his way back into form. Lance is
still trying to work his way back into form. Arraghetty
very encouraged from his last outing, you know, after a
dismal outing before it So okay, starting to maybe these
guys are running in a form. But if this team's
gonna do anything in the postseason, Brian it starts with
Hunter Brown and starts as from Arvaldez and Hunter Brown.
(04:47):
Last night an uncharacteristic, weird night where yeah, he only
gives up to earn, but you still give up six
runs and you'll lose six to one. I look at
tonight with Fromber and this is a big start for him.
I'm sorry, I mean, I get it, it's Colorado. But
at seven thirty three RA this month, Fromber's been bad
the last four starts. Like, I've got to see good
(05:08):
vintage Fromber here to feel good about myself. And if
he's not, man, I'm starting to hit the panic button
because I'm going my two automatics Fromber and Hudder Brown
if they can't get it done, like you really start
to get a little bit worried.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
No, absolutely, I mean this team's playoff hopes hinge around
kind of bookending a game, right, it's starting pitching, and
it's back of the bullpen, and it starts with the
two big guys at the top of the rotation. You
had the two big guys at the back of the bullpen.
You're already down one of them. So that's those four
guys that are out of the mix now with Hater
being down, So it becomes even more important to be
(05:41):
getting quality start after quality start from Hunter and Fromber.
And for Fromber, we got to see the stuff look
like it's supposed to. And there's going to be times
when you get hit a little bit, especially a guy
who gives a big round ball pitcher balls are going
to find holes all that stuff. But his curve ball,
who of his last three starts has not looked right.
(06:02):
You know, he hasn't been getting round balls at the
same rate that he typically does. There are some mechanical
things that are affecting the stuff. And if he doesn't
have that high end stuff and they don't have, you know,
a big two at the top of that starting rotation,
it's going to be really difficult to go out there
and try to run through a couple series in the playoffs,
(06:23):
and you know you'll be able to tell. You'll be
able to tell today because when his curve ball is working,
it's a really high swing and miss pitch and the
Rockies swinging miss more than anybody in baseball. So if
he's not able to rack up with with that curveball today,
it's still not right.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Do you think, Brian, that is something he works on
on the days he's throwing when he's not in the
rotation and not pitching, or is it something that he's
got to make a self assessment on when he's in
the bullpen get ready for the start that night.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
No, that is a definitely work on during the week.
I mean when his sinker and his curveball both with
the amount of movement that he has in those pitches,
release point is key, right. You got to know where
you're going to let that pitch go to, know where
it's going to land based on how much movement it's
got on any given day, and your mechanics have to
(07:14):
be really syncd up and right for you to be
able to adjust that based on what you've got that day.
So you know, you go out there, you try to
be really consistent with your mechanics and the throwing program
when you get off the mound in between starts and
you know know where you can start that pitch to
land at where you want. And then when you go
out there during the game, you know there are some
guys starting pitchers who if you have a really deep repertoire,
(07:37):
if you're a five to six pitch guy, if you
don't have a pitch working, you can just scrap it
and go with something else. A hunter does that all
the time. We've seeing lancemo Caallers do it at times.
But Fromber essentially a two pitch guy, we'll see him
go to more change ups or incorporate a slider every
once in a while, but he's got to find ways
to find the sinker and find the curveball. He's done
it at times this year. When you see him subtracting
(07:59):
thevelocity from his fastball, that's when he's really trying to
find that shape to kind of set everything in motion.
He's got to find a way to find it at
early today.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
The narrative after last night's loss, and obviously things can change,
especially if the Astros win the next two games of
the series. Is the Astros really play well against the
upper echelon teams, the first place teams, the wald card teams,
but man, they can struggle mightily with the second tier squad.
Last time at home Baltimore, that was a miserable series.
The game last night. Are we talking coincidence? I don't.
(08:32):
I don't believe Brian that the Astros clubhouse shuts the
door at six point fifteen before seven to ten first
pitch and says, boys, we got this handled. So if
that's not the case, which I believe it isn't the case,
then what is it? Why does this team have its
issues against teams that are significantly under five hundred or
out of the pennet race.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
It's got to be coincidence because there's nothing else that
makes sense. I mean, you've got too many guys who
have done it at a high level for so long
to think that they're just you know, can go out
there and be outclassed by some of those bottom of
the division teams on such a consistent basis. And also,
you know, maybe if you're talking middle of June July,
(09:13):
can you overlook somebody maybe not be as locked in
or or let the wear down of the season gets
you a little bit. Sure, but when you're talking about
thirty games left and a one game lead in the
division and a team breathing down your neck, the focus
should be there to not overlook a team like the
Rockies or a team like Baltimore. So, you know, it's
got to just be coincidence because we see what the
(09:35):
best version is. We see them go out there and
go toe to toe with the Phillies and with the Dodgers,
and we see what the good can be. So why
we don't see that against the lesser teams. I think
it's just kind of a random happenstance of the up
and downs of the season. And it's just lined up
to where they haven't been playing well.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Last question, we get Jordan back, maybe Myers hope for
the next tampule of days after rehabilitation starts in Sugarland.
Do you suggest any seismic shift in the everyday starting lineup,
especially if it goes seven deep, or do you think
the way it's kind of put together right now it's okay.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
No, I'm fine with the way it's put together now.
Obviously everything is fluid, and if you start getting you know,
eight ten games in and things aren't working out, maybe
you shuffle it around a little bit. I think the
biggest scene that we're going to see in terms of
kind of fluidity in the lineup or the construction during
during any given day is how do you incorporate al
(10:34):
Tuve at DH left field second base with now yourd
On into the mix. Who's going to get the bigger
share of DH? How are you going to keep each
of them fresh from being out in left field. That's
going to be interesting to watch. I mean, they're both
going to be in there every day. So just how
Joe gets it done and seeing how he thinks he
can maximize, you know, the team defensively with those guys.
(10:56):
But no, I think you're getting to the point to
where we're going to see a pretty consistent group of
six to seven guys every day, and then if just
a couple of guys sprinkled in with in matchup situations,
great Steph.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
As always, Bogie will look forward to seeing you tonight
on Space thatity appreciate the time, and we will visit
again next Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Sure, see you guys,
Four Sports Talk seven ninety. We start our number two
with our regular wins the guests. He is the analyst
on the Space City Home network. We say hello to
Brian Bogus seven. Bogie. Look, the worst teams in sports
are always going to be the best teams occasionally, especially
in baseball, because that's what they do. They usually win
fifty to sixty games. With that being said, it felt
(00:22):
especially painful because of you had your ace on the
mound and you had your power hitter back it. The
air of the balloon was pretty quick at dyke In
Park last night.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, you know, we said on the pregame show. With
as much adversity as the teammate had a fight through
and all the stuff that they had to overcome, it
finally felt like things were lining up in their favor.
There's a lot of stuff going for them coming in,
whether it be the offense getting it going in Baltimore,
your back hunters on the mound. You know, you got
the worst team in baseball coming into play, and it
(00:56):
just feels like it missed opportunities right like you know,
you see it all the time I'm in individual games.
You missed opportunities to score runs and it comes back
to bite you. This is, you know, the scheduling equivalent
of second and third nobody out and they didn't take
advantage of it.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
So the big question mark has been of us last
night a couple of walks for Jordan, which has always
been pretty good at doing. That is the protection behind him.
I know, many years ago we were growing up, we
talked about lineup construction a lot. It feels like we
don't talk about it nearly as much here in twenty
twenty five, generally speaking. But let me ask you, how
(01:34):
do you protect him from getting on base a couple
of times because other teams are like, we're not going
to pitch to.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Him, Well, you got to have run producers behind him, right.
If you're pitching around somebody, that inevitably means there's going
to be opportunities with runners on base behind him. And
you know, Christian Walker had those opportunities yesterday didn't work out.
You know, if you look at the body of work
for Christian Walker over the last two months, basically he's
(02:01):
his numbers are very similar to what they were last
couple of years. In Arizona, the guy we thought we
were getting, you know, he drove in a bunch of
runs on the road trip. Did it happen yesterday? No?
But you know, as of right now, he's the guy.
He's the guy who, you know, before Yordon came back,
was your best option as a run producer. So now
you stick him behind yord On and hope that a
(02:21):
couple of chances he can cash in on it. And
then all of a sudden you got to pitch to
the jord On.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yeah, that's all I was gonna say, Brian. I mean,
you know, Walker was so encouraging in that Baltimore series.
He was, you know, hitting home runs, and it was like,
all right, maybe he's getting going here. And then you know,
an zero for three night last night. I just you know, again,
maybe it was just you went up against a pitcher
that's feeling himself right now. It's so funny. I was
looking at Tanner Gordon, what do you give him, like
ten runs two weeks ago to Arizona and then he
(02:46):
goes one run against the Dodgers, one run against the Astros.
So sometimes you just run into a guy who's just
pitching well. But I think that's the biggest thing to
Matt's point, is Okay, Jordon's back great, But yeah, if
teams are going to walk him, you need somebody to
driving those runs. But Christian Walker has just been so
inconsistent all year. I'm just I'm worried about him being
the guy behind your.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Nun maybe, but certainly have to give it more than
one game to really dissect it. I mean, if you
look at the opportunity. Yesterday, he hit a ball I
forget which inning, it was, maybe the fifth or sixth
inning he lined out to left field to end the
inning with runners on basis. The ball had an expected
batting average over nine hundred. It was just a good
play right out a guy. So you know, you can't
(03:30):
just say you went over. It's not working when the
guy you know hit a line drive that could have
easily gotten down his first at bat, the inning that,
you know, the end of the first inning, it was
a good pitch to hit. He barreled, it just got
under it under, it flew out the center field. You know,
as long as it's not looking overmatched, as long as
it's not hey, they are targeting you and attacking you
(03:51):
one specific way because they have found a weakness that
they know they can go to time and time again.
If he's you know, in a good spot swing wise,
if he's getting good pitches they hit. Let him go
out there for more than a couple of games and
really see, because you know, he's he's produced runs better
than most guys on the team. I mean, I think
(04:11):
there's you know, RBIs with two outs. He's at the
top of the American League. He's got you know, a
high percentage of RBIs to games over the last two
months or so. So he's been getting it done, but
certainly didn't yesterday starting pitching.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
It's it's a weird time right now. Look, we know
Hoavier is working his way back into form. Lance is
still trying to work his way back into form. Arraghetty
very encouraged from his last outing, you know, after a
dismal outing before it So okay, starting to maybe these
guys are running in a form. But if this team's
gonna do anything in the postseason, Brian it starts with
Hunter Brown and starts as from Arvaldez and Hunter Brown.
(04:47):
Last night an uncharacteristic, weird night where yeah, he only
gives up to earn, but you still give up six
runs and you'll lose six to one. I look at
tonight with Fromber and this is a big start for him.
I'm sorry, I mean, I get it, it's Colorado. But
at seven thirty three RA this month, Fromber's been bad
the last four starts. Like, I've got to see good
(05:08):
vintage Fromber here to feel good about myself. And if
he's not, man, I'm starting to hit the panic button
because I'm going my two automatics Fromber and Hudder Brown
if they can't get it done, like you really start
to get a little bit worried.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
No, absolutely, I mean this team's playoff hopes hinge around
kind of bookending a game, right, it's starting pitching, and
it's back of the bullpen, and it starts with the
two big guys at the top of the rotation. You
had the two big guys at the back of the bullpen.
You're already down one of them. So that's those four
guys that are out of the mix now with Hater
being down, So it becomes even more important to be
(05:41):
getting quality start after quality start from Hunter and Fromber.
And for Fromber, we got to see the stuff look
like it's supposed to. And there's going to be times
when you get hit a little bit, especially a guy
who gives a big round ball pitcher balls are going
to find holes all that stuff. But his curve ball,
who of his last three starts has not looked right.
(06:02):
You know, he hasn't been getting round balls at the
same rate that he typically does. There are some mechanical
things that are affecting the stuff. And if he doesn't
have that high end stuff and they don't have, you know,
a big two at the top of that starting rotation,
it's going to be really difficult to go out there
and try to run through a couple series in the playoffs,
(06:23):
and you know you'll be able to tell. You'll be
able to tell today because when his curve ball is working,
it's a really high swing and miss pitch and the
Rockies swinging miss more than anybody in baseball. So if
he's not able to rack up with with that curveball today,
it's still not right.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Do you think, Brian, that is something he works on
on the days he's throwing when he's not in the
rotation and not pitching, or is it something that he's
got to make a self assessment on when he's in
the bullpen get ready for the start that night.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
No, that is a definitely work on during the week.
I mean when his sinker and his curveball both with
the amount of movement that he has in those pitches,
release point is key, right. You got to know where
you're going to let that pitch go to, know where
it's going to land based on how much movement it's
got on any given day, and your mechanics have to
(07:14):
be really syncd up and right for you to be
able to adjust that based on what you've got that day.
So you know, you go out there, you try to
be really consistent with your mechanics and the throwing program
when you get off the mound in between starts and
you know know where you can start that pitch to
land at where you want. And then when you go
out there during the game, you know there are some
guys starting pitchers who if you have a really deep repertoire,
(07:37):
if you're a five to six pitch guy, if you
don't have a pitch working, you can just scrap it
and go with something else. A hunter does that all
the time. We've seeing lancemo Caallers do it at times.
But Fromber essentially a two pitch guy, we'll see him
go to more change ups or incorporate a slider every
once in a while, but he's got to find ways
to find the sinker and find the curveball. He's done
it at times this year. When you see him subtracting
(07:59):
thevelocity from his fastball, that's when he's really trying to
find that shape to kind of set everything in motion.
He's got to find a way to find it at
early today.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
The narrative after last night's loss, and obviously things can change,
especially if the Astros win the next two games of
the series. Is the Astros really play well against the
upper echelon teams, the first place teams, the wald card teams,
but man, they can struggle mightily with the second tier squad.
Last time at home Baltimore, that was a miserable series.
The game last night. Are we talking coincidence? I don't.
(08:32):
I don't believe Brian that the Astros clubhouse shuts the
door at six point fifteen before seven to ten first
pitch and says, boys, we got this handled. So if
that's not the case, which I believe it isn't the case,
then what is it? Why does this team have its
issues against teams that are significantly under five hundred or
out of the pennet race.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
It's got to be coincidence because there's nothing else that
makes sense. I mean, you've got too many guys who
have done it at a high level for so long
to think that they're just you know, can go out
there and be outclassed by some of those bottom of
the division teams on such a consistent basis. And also,
you know, maybe if you're talking middle of June July,
(09:13):
can you overlook somebody maybe not be as locked in
or or let the wear down of the season gets
you a little bit. Sure, but when you're talking about
thirty games left and a one game lead in the
division and a team breathing down your neck, the focus
should be there to not overlook a team like the
Rockies or a team like Baltimore. So, you know, it's
got to just be coincidence because we see what the
(09:35):
best version is. We see them go out there and
go toe to toe with the Phillies and with the Dodgers,
and we see what the good can be. So why
we don't see that against the lesser teams. I think
it's just kind of a random happenstance of the up
and downs of the season. And it's just lined up
to where they haven't been playing well.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Last question, we get Jordan back, maybe Myers hope for
the next tampule of days after rehabilitation starts in Sugarland.
Do you suggest any seismic shift in the everyday starting lineup,
especially if it goes seven deep, or do you think
the way it's kind of put together right now it's okay.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
No, I'm fine with the way it's put together now.
Obviously everything is fluid, and if you start getting you know,
eight ten games in and things aren't working out, maybe
you shuffle it around a little bit. I think the
biggest scene that we're going to see in terms of
kind of fluidity in the lineup or the construction during
during any given day is how do you incorporate al
(10:34):
Tuve at DH left field second base with now yourd
On into the mix. Who's going to get the bigger
share of DH? How are you going to keep each
of them fresh from being out in left field. That's
going to be interesting to watch. I mean, they're both
going to be in there every day. So just how
Joe gets it done and seeing how he thinks he
can maximize, you know, the team defensively with those guys.
(10:56):
But no, I think you're getting to the point to
where we're going to see a pretty consistent group of
six to seven guys every day, and then if just
a couple of guys sprinkled in with in matchup situations,
great Steph.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
As always, Bogie will look forward to seeing you tonight
on Space thatity appreciate the time, and we will visit
again next Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Sure, see you guys,
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