May 1, 2026 • 10 mins
Brian McTaggart Discusses Astros Early Season Struggles
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is a busy andthing goes Friday here on Sports
Talk seven. Auntie and we missed our friend Brian mctagger
yesterday because of the double dip, so we get ten
twenty minutes with him here on a Friday here on
Sports Talk seven. Hounty tags. Uh, let's be brutally honest.
Three point thirty three baseball probably not gonna last too
much longer and keep people excited about this town. But
(00:21):
after the desk the disappointment of the opening game of
bet doubleheadery yesterday, the Astrobats woke up and at least
able to get a split out of those two games
yesterday against the Orioles.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I mean, you still can't argue about the way they're
swinging the bats. I mean, I think they out hit
the Oriels, what twenty seven to twelve yesterday or something
like that in the two games. So it's just coming
down to their pitching just hasn't been good enough. I mean,
it's it's been that way really since after the first
home stand of the season. So hey, it's May, it's
a new month. Maybe they can just put this behind them.
(00:52):
But you know, they're playing a Red Sox team that
is equally is in trouble right now. They're at the
bottom of their division as well, so maybe they swept
them already, so maybe this is a chance for them
to get right and come home and face the Dodgers.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Oh God, that it makes me sick to saying that
your thoughts generally speaking about the Phillies making a change,
the Red Sox making a change, and naturally the writers
around baseball were like, who's next, and unfortunately the Astros
are on that mix, and that weren't asking for an
endorsement because I think, you know, Joe has done everything
he could, especially with the fact that pitching staff has
been such a mess with all the injuries. But are
(01:27):
you noticing a trend in baseball in all the years
you've covered that the leashes are getting a lot shorter,
even for guys that have been very successful, like the
two managers just got let go this past week.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
And I think this is a time of year where
we start seeing you know, stuff like you know, managers
getting fired like we have so far. I mean, it
was I think early May last year when two or
three two or three managers got fired. But I don't
think it's at NBA levels yet where it seems like,
you know, you have one bad year and you're out
of there. It's complicated because they've had so many injuries,
(02:00):
you know. I'm I don't think there's anything Joe could
have done differently. I mean, I think if he has
a healthy team last year to make the playoffs, if
they have a healthy team this year, they're certainly in
better shape than they are now. So I'm not sure
what a difference, you know, making a change would do
at this point. Jim Crane has never done that kind
of thing in the middle of the season anyway, so
(02:21):
there's still a long way to go. And uh, you know,
let's see if they can slowly start getting healthy. You know,
Penya could be back next week, maybe they can start digging.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Their way out of this.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Because the division again looks like it's it's pretty mediocre,
so all's not lost. They still have what one hundred
and thirty games left, so a chance to you know,
it's barely made first so in another month this could
look a little bit different. So I don't think we're
to that point with any you know, making a change
with the Astros. I don't think it would make much
(02:50):
of a difference.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I don't either. I don't need it, not at all.
But you mentioned the bats Yard and Alvarez. I mean,
if you were to take an MVP race, as he
tops on the list of the American League side of
things so far.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
I mean, I think what's going to be difficult is
if they do end up having a poor season and
they finished in last place and he has he puts
up these kind of numbers and hits forty plus homers,
is he you know, is he's Is he going to
get votes on a bad team? You know, that's probably
gonna hurt his case a little bit. But he's he's
already got twelve homers, which his career high is thirty seven,
(03:23):
So he's almost a third of the way to his
career high through April. And he's he's mashed in Boston
in his career. He a couple of years ago, he
had a you know, a four hit game here, next
next game had a three hit game. He was injured
last year when they came to Fenway. But this is
a park where he sees the ball really well. So
he's got a chance to fatten those numbers again. But uh, yeah,
(03:45):
if he can keep this up, he's got a chance
to to put his name to the top of some
Astros record books. You know, I think Bagwell's single season
home run records, if he can stay healthy, is something
that I think could be in jeopardy because he's he's
on a pace right now to hit fifty plus home runs.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Brian McTaggart MLB dot Com, Astros dot Com with us
here on at Sports Talk seven ninety. As we do often, Brian,
I will ask you a state of the rotation yesterday,
I mean before the wheels fall off. I mean, Lambert
took no hitter into the fourth inning and was looking
pretty solid, and you got a quality start from Lance
mcullors Junior, but his his velo is down. It feels
(04:21):
like even when guys are on the feeling like they're
on the right track, something goes wrong.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
I mean, yeah, it was a quality start for Lance.
Did have the nine strikeouts, but yeah, the vlow downs
not ideal. I know, Lance said he would, you know,
substitute the movement on his pitches for the v low
and you know, maybe he's still, you know, trying to
figure out how to make things work with the stuff
that he has nowadays.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
But yeah, nothing really feels.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Good about the rotation other than the Arragetty who's won
all three of his starts. Lambert was like, like you said,
was good but not great. They just need guys to
get get deeper. And I think the guy that really
needs to step it up is Burrows tonight, and it
seems like he's really close to me to giving them
the kind of start then he'd go in six or
seven innings. He just you know, a couple of starts
(05:09):
ago he were sent down, I think the first fourteen
and then things kind of fell apart on him with some.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Walks and stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
So yeah, they they just got to start getting guys
go deeper and then you know, maybe Emi comes back
after one more rehab start. Certainly did not look good
in double A the other night. I didn't see it
just looking at the line. So lots of issues in
the rotation and those are really really hard to fix.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
And uh, but that's kind of just you know where
they're at this.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Point, all right, and also becoming a weekly theme what's
going on with Brian and Bray You Velo was down,
It did tick up, but of course overall the outing
not what you wanted to see.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yeah, still walking some guys, you know, giving up some
hard contact. I know they're trying everything they can to
try to get him mined out, and I mean you're
pretty much pitching a reliever short because you can't really
you know, trust him in any tight games. And they
play a lot of type games, So I'm not sure where.
I'm not sure where that's gonna lead on. I know
it's very frustrating for Brian, and it's also you know,
(06:08):
a walk year for him, so you know, he could
be a free agent at the end of the year,
so you know that that's got to be in his
head as well. But certainly they again, if they're gonna
get this thing turned around, you know, pitching is where
it's got to happen. And getting Brian a bray you
back to the old Brian and braw Is is as
important as anything they have, and you know, including you know,
getting Hater back maybe later this month, So they're just
(06:31):
gonna have to keep running him out there until until
he figures it out.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
We talked about Veilo a couple of times in our
conversation here. Brian, when you hear a guy goes from
ninety three to ninety one or ninety six to ninety four.
Is it just in our nature to get warm worried
about whether or not there is arm issues or can
just guys be trying something different and or maybe guys
just off a tick on a particular starterard appearance.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah, I mean, I think the number one thing is
is he healthy?
Speaker 3 (06:58):
And I mean and those are questions, and I mean
Brian was asked that question directly, you know, after I
think his last outing in minime that didn't go well.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Are you healthy? He said yes, And so I thought
it was really interesting that he said that.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
He he doesn't have a lot of confidence in some
of his pitches. You know, he's he's not throwing many strikes.
So I think that's playing into his velo a little bit.
You know, maybe there is a some kind of physical
thing there that we just don't know about.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
I think from a.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Colors, it's just a matter of you know, all the
surgeries he's been through, basically a couple of Tommy John's,
and the wear and tear on his elbow, and he's
just trying to figure out different ways to get guys
out at this point, and he's never going to be
throwing ninety six ninety seven again, so h but if
he's ninety three ninety four, that's plenty good enough. But
he wasn't there yesterday, so I think he's still trying
(07:44):
to figure it out as well. But these are all
these are all issues that they hope they can fix
on the fly. Here they're going to have to be
sooner or later or this. You know, this thing's kind
of going to get away from them.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
All right, let's get to Jeremy Payna update. What you
know is at this point and also what's that's the
future for at least the next two week or so
for a tattoo Emi.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, Paya is back with the team.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
I guess he'll be in Uh he was in Baltimore,
so he'll he'll be here in Boston this weekend. You know,
he grew up in Providence, so he'll have some people
at the ballpark probably, But uh, it looks like he'll
be on a rehab probably next week, so I think,
certainly maybe after the Dodgers series, they get him back.
I don't know how many games he's gonna need, probably
no more than two or three. So he looks like
(08:29):
he's pretty close em they're gonna.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Give him one more start.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
I haven't seen whether that's gonna be a double A
or triple A at this point, but he's just gonna
have to go out there and put up some results
and get some guys out or they got a big
issue on their hand with him as well, because they
invested a lot of money in him and he was
I got it. They were plugging in the middle of
the rotation and so far I've spent a disaster. So
this will be a big start for him, I think,
(08:52):
to see if he can get this, he can just
get himself back on track and get back in the
big leagues.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
And see if he can get big lead hitters out.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
And as far as the offense is concerned, and we
you know again it's been a really good season for Jordan.
The Cam Smith home run was a big part of it.
What's going through Cam's mind right now? And I'll also
throw Bryce Matthews in a mix. There are two guys
that frankly, Dana Brown has got a lot of value
in hoping that they are successful and if they've not been,
and there's been ups and downs, more downs and ups,
(09:21):
that that doesn't necessarily make things overly great for this
lineup with two guys that have so much invested in
the future of this team.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
I mean those are two of the key acquisitions for
Dana Brown so far. I mean his first draft pick,
Bryce Matthews in twenty three, and then Cam was sort
of the centerpiece of this trade, the Kyle Tucker trade.
And you know, Cam's always working on things. I think
he's working on some things with his hands, but if
anyone needed a home run like that, it was Cam Smith.
So maybe he can start building on this a little bit.
(09:51):
And yeah, they need to get him going. Goes without
saying I mean that the books still out on Bryce again.
He's working on some things well. But as we saw
the I think the first game in Baltimore, when when
he hits the ball, I mean the ball flies off
the bat.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
He hits the ball really, really hard. He just has
so much swing and missed and he's got to cut down.
I'm that somewhat.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
I'm interested to see you if Zach Decenzo, you know,
he's been on rehab, looks like he's starting to swing
it a little better. If he comes back, and maybe
they send Bryce down and let him play every day
and try to work things out there and then maybe
take a look at him later.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
But you know, I think certainly that you know, he's
got to hit better.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
I think to keep his spot on this club once
they get a couple more guys back from the Angel List.
It is a busy andthing goes Friday here on Sports
Talk seven. Auntie and we missed our friend Brian mctagger
yesterday because of the double dip, so we get ten
twenty minutes with him here on a Friday here on
Sports Talk seven. Hounty tags. Uh, let's be brutally honest.
Three point thirty three baseball probably not gonna last too
much longer and keep people excited about this town. But
(00:21):
after the desk the disappointment of the opening game of
bet doubleheadery yesterday, the Astrobats woke up and at least
able to get a split out of those two games
yesterday against the Orioles.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I mean, you still can't argue about the way they're
swinging the bats. I mean, I think they out hit
the Oriels, what twenty seven to twelve yesterday or something
like that in the two games. So it's just coming
down to their pitching just hasn't been good enough. I mean,
it's it's been that way really since after the first
home stand of the season. So hey, it's May, it's
a new month. Maybe they can just put this behind them.
(00:52):
But you know, they're playing a Red Sox team that
is equally is in trouble right now. They're at the
bottom of their division as well, so maybe they swept
them already, so maybe this is a chance for them
to get right and come home and face the Dodgers.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Oh God, that it makes me sick to saying that
your thoughts generally speaking about the Phillies making a change,
the Red Sox making a change, and naturally the writers
around baseball were like, who's next, and unfortunately the Astros
are on that mix, and that weren't asking for an
endorsement because I think, you know, Joe has done everything
he could, especially with the fact that pitching staff has
been such a mess with all the injuries. But are
(01:27):
you noticing a trend in baseball in all the years
you've covered that the leashes are getting a lot shorter,
even for guys that have been very successful, like the
two managers just got let go this past week.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
And I think this is a time of year where
we start seeing you know, stuff like you know, managers
getting fired like we have so far. I mean, it
was I think early May last year when two or
three two or three managers got fired. But I don't
think it's at NBA levels yet where it seems like,
you know, you have one bad year and you're out
of there. It's complicated because they've had so many injuries,
(02:00):
you know. I'm I don't think there's anything Joe could
have done differently. I mean, I think if he has
a healthy team last year to make the playoffs, if
they have a healthy team this year, they're certainly in
better shape than they are now. So I'm not sure
what a difference, you know, making a change would do
at this point. Jim Crane has never done that kind
of thing in the middle of the season anyway, so
(02:21):
there's still a long way to go. And uh, you know,
let's see if they can slowly start getting healthy. You know,
Penya could be back next week, maybe they can start digging.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Their way out of this.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Because the division again looks like it's it's pretty mediocre,
so all's not lost. They still have what one hundred
and thirty games left, so a chance to you know,
it's barely made first so in another month this could
look a little bit different. So I don't think we're
to that point with any you know, making a change
with the Astros. I don't think it would make much
(02:50):
of a difference.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I don't either. I don't need it, not at all.
But you mentioned the bats Yard and Alvarez. I mean,
if you were to take an MVP race, as he
tops on the list of the American League side of
things so far.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
I mean, I think what's going to be difficult is
if they do end up having a poor season and
they finished in last place and he has he puts
up these kind of numbers and hits forty plus homers,
is he you know, is he's Is he going to
get votes on a bad team? You know, that's probably
gonna hurt his case a little bit. But he's he's
already got twelve homers, which his career high is thirty seven,
(03:23):
So he's almost a third of the way to his
career high through April. And he's he's mashed in Boston
in his career. He a couple of years ago, he
had a you know, a four hit game here, next
next game had a three hit game. He was injured
last year when they came to Fenway. But this is
a park where he sees the ball really well. So
he's got a chance to fatten those numbers again. But uh, yeah,
(03:45):
if he can keep this up, he's got a chance
to to put his name to the top of some
Astros record books. You know, I think Bagwell's single season
home run records, if he can stay healthy, is something
that I think could be in jeopardy because he's he's
on a pace right now to hit fifty plus home runs.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Brian McTaggart MLB dot Com, Astros dot Com with us
here on at Sports Talk seven ninety. As we do often, Brian,
I will ask you a state of the rotation yesterday,
I mean before the wheels fall off. I mean, Lambert
took no hitter into the fourth inning and was looking
pretty solid, and you got a quality start from Lance
mcullors Junior, but his his velo is down. It feels
(04:21):
like even when guys are on the feeling like they're
on the right track, something goes wrong.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
I mean, yeah, it was a quality start for Lance.
Did have the nine strikeouts, but yeah, the vlow downs
not ideal. I know, Lance said he would, you know,
substitute the movement on his pitches for the v low
and you know, maybe he's still, you know, trying to
figure out how to make things work with the stuff
that he has nowadays.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
But yeah, nothing really feels.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Good about the rotation other than the Arragetty who's won
all three of his starts. Lambert was like, like you said,
was good but not great. They just need guys to
get get deeper. And I think the guy that really
needs to step it up is Burrows tonight, and it
seems like he's really close to me to giving them
the kind of start then he'd go in six or
seven innings. He just you know, a couple of starts
(05:09):
ago he were sent down, I think the first fourteen
and then things kind of fell apart on him with some.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Walks and stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
So yeah, they they just got to start getting guys
go deeper and then you know, maybe Emi comes back
after one more rehab start. Certainly did not look good
in double A the other night. I didn't see it
just looking at the line. So lots of issues in
the rotation and those are really really hard to fix.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
And uh, but that's kind of just you know where
they're at this.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Point, all right, and also becoming a weekly theme what's
going on with Brian and Bray You Velo was down,
It did tick up, but of course overall the outing
not what you wanted to see.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yeah, still walking some guys, you know, giving up some
hard contact. I know they're trying everything they can to
try to get him mined out, and I mean you're
pretty much pitching a reliever short because you can't really
you know, trust him in any tight games. And they
play a lot of type games, So I'm not sure where.
I'm not sure where that's gonna lead on. I know
it's very frustrating for Brian, and it's also you know,
(06:08):
a walk year for him, so you know, he could
be a free agent at the end of the year,
so you know that that's got to be in his
head as well. But certainly they again, if they're gonna
get this thing turned around, you know, pitching is where
it's got to happen. And getting Brian a bray you
back to the old Brian and braw Is is as
important as anything they have, and you know, including you know,
getting Hater back maybe later this month, So they're just
(06:31):
gonna have to keep running him out there until until
he figures it out.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
We talked about Veilo a couple of times in our
conversation here. Brian, when you hear a guy goes from
ninety three to ninety one or ninety six to ninety four.
Is it just in our nature to get warm worried
about whether or not there is arm issues or can
just guys be trying something different and or maybe guys
just off a tick on a particular starterard appearance.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah, I mean, I think the number one thing is
is he healthy?
Speaker 3 (06:58):
And I mean and those are questions, and I mean
Brian was asked that question directly, you know, after I
think his last outing in minime that didn't go well.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Are you healthy? He said yes, And so I thought
it was really interesting that he said that.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
He he doesn't have a lot of confidence in some
of his pitches. You know, he's he's not throwing many strikes.
So I think that's playing into his velo a little bit.
You know, maybe there is a some kind of physical
thing there that we just don't know about.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
I think from a.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Colors, it's just a matter of you know, all the
surgeries he's been through, basically a couple of Tommy John's,
and the wear and tear on his elbow, and he's
just trying to figure out different ways to get guys
out at this point, and he's never going to be
throwing ninety six ninety seven again, so h but if
he's ninety three ninety four, that's plenty good enough. But
he wasn't there yesterday, so I think he's still trying
(07:44):
to figure it out as well. But these are all
these are all issues that they hope they can fix
on the fly. Here they're going to have to be
sooner or later or this. You know, this thing's kind
of going to get away from them.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
All right, let's get to Jeremy Payna update. What you
know is at this point and also what's that's the
future for at least the next two week or so
for a tattoo Emi.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, Paya is back with the team.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
I guess he'll be in Uh he was in Baltimore,
so he'll he'll be here in Boston this weekend. You know,
he grew up in Providence, so he'll have some people
at the ballpark probably, But uh, it looks like he'll
be on a rehab probably next week, so I think,
certainly maybe after the Dodgers series, they get him back.
I don't know how many games he's gonna need, probably
no more than two or three. So he looks like
(08:29):
he's pretty close em they're gonna.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Give him one more start.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
I haven't seen whether that's gonna be a double A
or triple A at this point, but he's just gonna
have to go out there and put up some results
and get some guys out or they got a big
issue on their hand with him as well, because they
invested a lot of money in him and he was
I got it. They were plugging in the middle of
the rotation and so far I've spent a disaster. So
this will be a big start for him, I think,
(08:52):
to see if he can get this, he can just
get himself back on track and get back in the
big leagues.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
And see if he can get big lead hitters out.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
And as far as the offense is concerned, and we
you know again it's been a really good season for Jordan.
The Cam Smith home run was a big part of it.
What's going through Cam's mind right now? And I'll also
throw Bryce Matthews in a mix. There are two guys
that frankly, Dana Brown has got a lot of value
in hoping that they are successful and if they've not been,
and there's been ups and downs, more downs and ups,
(09:21):
that that doesn't necessarily make things overly great for this
lineup with two guys that have so much invested in
the future of this team.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
I mean those are two of the key acquisitions for
Dana Brown so far. I mean his first draft pick,
Bryce Matthews in twenty three, and then Cam was sort
of the centerpiece of this trade, the Kyle Tucker trade.
And you know, Cam's always working on things. I think
he's working on some things with his hands, but if
anyone needed a home run like that, it was Cam Smith.
So maybe he can start building on this a little bit.
(09:51):
And yeah, they need to get him going. Goes without
saying I mean that the books still out on Bryce again.
He's working on some things well. But as we saw
the I think the first game in Baltimore, when when
he hits the ball, I mean the ball flies off
the bat.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
He hits the ball really, really hard. He just has
so much swing and missed and he's got to cut down.
I'm that somewhat.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
I'm interested to see you if Zach Decenzo, you know,
he's been on rehab, looks like he's starting to swing
it a little better. If he comes back, and maybe
they send Bryce down and let him play every day
and try to work things out there and then maybe
take a look at him later.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
But you know, I think certainly that you know, he's
got to hit better.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
I think to keep his spot on this club once
they get a couple more guys back from the Angel List.
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.