Speaker 1: Eleven oh one Sports Talk seven ninety. Let's spend ten
coldy minutes with our friend Brian bogus Sevik. He was
busy on TV duty yesterday, so we switched him to
today and he joins us here on the seven ninety.
Boget's great to hear your voice is always uh help me.
We spent the first hour trying to figure out what
has happened to our favorite left hander who has had
a disastrous month of April.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: Hunter Brown knew the situation was tight against Tark's well,
he had to be as good as he possibly could,
and he was for those innings that he threw. Astros
needed a lengthy game. They got their five innings from
their starter in from Bervaldez. But it was more of
a hey, we got nobody else, You're gonna have to
worry this a little bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was. It was certainly disappointing, you know, seeing
Troumberd not really go out there and rise to the occasion.
I think you got to look at it through two
different lenses. You know, first of all the physical right,
like this is two out of his last three starts
where the sinker hasn't had the right shape the curve
ball has been pretty ineffective, and so that's kind of
a you got to sit down, you got to look
at some video, You got to work on your mechanics
in between starts and get that right. You know, when
he's kind of feeling for his sinker a little bit
and you see the velocity really varying, that's when you
can tell he's trying to find the right shape and
the right release point and he just didn't have it yesterday.
But that's that that happens throughout the course of the season.
That's something that that you can fix. That is unfortunate
that it's happening now, but it just is what it is.
The other side of it is kind of looking at
it from you know, where's from are at mentally right?
This is something that we've seen pop up throughout the
course of his career, is when things don't go his way,
frustration builds and and it snowballs on him, and you know,
innings get away from him, and you know, he kind
of becomes his own worst enemy. And you know, we've
never seen it like yesterday where it almost felt like
he was frustrated going into the game. Usually it takes
a blue pit and you know, some guys bunting on
him and trying to steal bases to really kind of
rattle him a little bit. It almost felt like going
into that game with where the offense has been, it
was almost like a, you know, instead of going into
that game thinking I'm going to be the guy that
elevates us, I'm going to be the guy that, you know,
even if we're not scoring runs, I'm going to throw
up a bunch of zeros and give us a chance.
It almost was a oh man, you know we're not
going to score any runs. It's going to be harder
than it should be. It was almost a defeated before
you went out there kind of feeling. And that's really
concerning because you need your best guys to be the
guys that kind of stand up and say, hey, you
made an error behind me, I'll pick you up. You
guys in scor any runs, I'll pick you up. And
that start to the game yesterday certainly was not that.
Speaker 1: And Brian, we got to be fair here. We don't
want to be psychologist on the radio show. We want
to be people that talk about the game. You've played
the game, you know the intricacies of it, but it
is a pretty fair assertion to say that if you're
seeing that before the game, that's that's a huge cause
for concern. Now, he could have that his Dauber down
and then go throw seven innings of three hit, ball
and spin and beautiful and get the highest rich guy
count and we'd be like, well, that's just Frommer. But
it's so disheartening because you know, I thought Hunter Brown
went in there going trek Scooble is one of the
best pitchers in the game. I've got to be my
very best, and I thought he had the maxy to
do that. And I guess the thing is, not every
player you've ever played with, Brian Bogosvik, or every picture
you've been with or you've covered or talked about or
played with, has that maxia of I don't care what's
going against this, I'm going to fight through it. And
maybe Frombert is one of those guys.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, we've seen him come up
big in big situations in playoff games in the past,
so it's not really that. It's more of just getting
him into the right headspace because we know from experience
that he can be a guy that can go out
there and thrive in pressure pack situations, and you know,
sometimes it builds start over start. There's been some things
that haven't gone Fromber's way, even when he's been really
good in a couple of starts recently. So it's really
just getting him in the right space. You know, in
between starts, you've got to work on things mechanically in
your bullpen sessions, but you also got to get in
the right headspace. And I think you know, having a
strong clubhouse, you know, having Carlos Carea back, having Al
Tuove there, kind of sit down with him and reassure
him that you know, we're all in this with you
and we need you. I think that's kind of where
you got to get him to because if he's right,
I mean I'm not talking about physically right, but when
he's right and he's going out there and taking on
that challenge, I mean he's been up to it in
the past.
Speaker 1: Brian Bogus evch with us here on Sports Talk seven.
Ani Bogie does lineup construction. That's where I think a
lot of folks will call me and say, hey, why
is this player in front of this guy? Why is
this guy hitting in this part of the order and look,
Joe's is trying to find something that works, and unfortunate
when you've had such little offense a last handful of
days as well, try flip move different guys around. Generally speaking,
your assessment of the lineup in terms of its up
and down changes, I don't think there's much to do
with it, because it's not like it's been a certain
pocket of players that have done their job, and it's
just felt like a collective slump among the entire team.
Thus the case with no runs being scored except for
the two run homer yesterday afternoon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you only have you know the tools
that are at your disposal, and I mean we've seen
we've seen lineup tweaks throughout the course of the season
where if there's only a handful of guys who have
it going, you know, Joe's really tried to bunch those
guys up so you have some semblance of you know,
guys stringing at bats together. The problem right now is
that it's not really going that way for anybody, and
you can only make a lineup out of what you got,
and you know, they dropped Sanchez down in the in
the lineup a little bit, But you know, at some point,
the lineup is what it is, and the roster is
what it is, and it's on the players to go
out there and hit. And you can try to find
favorite matchups and kind of give yourself advantages in the margins.
But when the players aren't hitting, it doesn't matter, you know,
if you're hitting first or you're hitting nines.
Speaker 1: Honestly, Bogie, this team has had its offensive rolls. Really
more so this consistently is compared to being a team
that's putting up seven, eight to nine runs. To me,
this has been a kind of a byproduct if you've
got a lot of guys getting a lot of AB's
that maybe are playing the most. And I'll use Camsmith
as example, Taylor Tremmell has been a guy that's been
up and down with a variety of different teams. Jacob
Meltin looks like he's not necessarily ready for the big
time of major league baseball. How much of that is
do you think is the moment right now is really
big for a lot of these young men who have
not gotten as many professional at bats like this. How
much of this is dog days and how much of
this is my God, Jordan, please make sure your hands
feel good. We need you in the heart of the
lineup as soon as humanly possible.
Speaker 2: I think the biggest thing is is, you know, middle
of the order major league hitters run producers. Big time
hitters like Jordan or guys like him aren't very common,
and you can you can find guys who are swinging
a hot bat and have them in the middle of
the order for a while, and you can you know,
play a hot hand for a little bit. But you know,
at the end of the day, to have a you know,
big time offense that consistently produces runs, you need the
horses to do it. And you know, they did a
great job for a long time getting by piecing together
a lineup and having guys put in situations where they
can thrive, and getting production out of the bottom of
a lineup of guys who are just kind of filling
in roles. You know, a lot of that has to
do with you need your big guys up at top producing,
so the guys further down the lineup can just be
you know, supplementing that. But you know, at the at
the end of the day, you become who you are,
and you know, Cam Smith is a guy who was
in college last year, and some of these other guys
were guys that were not necessarily going to be counted
on as everyday players. And when you get thrust into
that role at some point, it's going to get exposed
a little bit. And you know, if they're gonna score
runs consistently and be a productive offense consistently, it's got
to be from the guys who can do it. And
getting yourd On back will be helpful, and getting Altuve
hot again will be helpful, and getting Christian Walker going
will be helpful. But yeah, you're you're not going to
consistently score runs if you're just trying to piece meal
a lineup together.
Speaker 1: How much did the former outfielder and you feel for
Taylor Trammel and Hitty took in the first thing of
the game yesterday?
Speaker 2: You know what I First of all, that's the position
that you're in physically there, where you're you're on a
dead sprint backwards, but at the same time you're trying
to kind of fight to keep the ball from from
pailing over your head, so you're leaning back like that's
the worst position you can be in to run face
first into the wall. So yeah, that that doesn't feel good.
But this is, you know, one of the things where
you point at and you say, Okay, the team's not
playing well, they're not hitting well, they're not winning games.
You know, how frustrating is it? You know, is Joe's
spot of going in the clubhouse and flipping tables and stuff.
But it's like you've got guys literally running face first
into the wall. I mean, the night before Taylor Tremmell
laid out on the warning track and landed flat on
his back. So there's no lack of effort, there's no
lack of playing hard. And so yeah, I feel for
guys going out there and trying to put in that
effort and still not getting the results that they want.
But you know, it's not for lack of going for
it lastly.
Speaker 1: And I don't mean to put twenty five egos into
your mind here for a second, or twenty six, I
should say. But yeah, if you're Joe Aspata and your
team has scored two runs and a handful of games,
nearly got perfect game the other night against Baltimore, you're
seeing that same guy tonight. As a matter of fact,
what is the clubhouse tenor I know it has been
so even keeled for about a decade, even when things
haven't been great, because there have been some downspots there
always in one hundred and sixty two game schedule, But
this feels I don't know if the were tense. I
know there was a player conversation that took place that
Carlos created that said a couple of things here and there.
How does Joe manage this when it's not necessarily about
guys not performing up to expectations. There maybe a few
in the mix, but it's also a lot of guys
that are like, man, we just need some help. And
whether it's coming through pitching and injuries and getting guys back,
whether it's Jordan, and that's a lot of pressure on him.
How does Joe handle the tough love versus August dog
days versus If I start screaming and yelling and throwing water,
gatorade bottles and whatnot, I might lose my clubhouse and
we're still a game in a half in front of
everybody else in the American League West.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's certainly not about screaming and yelling. You know
that that's not going to move the needle. With guys.
You know, what you do want to do is express
and create the sense of urgency which is already going
to be there with a lot of guys who been
through you know, stretch runs and playoff hunts, but just
kind of say, hey, guys, you know, we know that
over the course of a season you work your way
out of slumps, but this is kind of you know,
we don't have the luxury of time on our hands
right now. We've got to push a little bit harder,
and just not even from a physical standpoint of working
harder or doing more, but just we need that focus
to be there every day and kind of lock in
like we would if this were the last series of
the season and our playoff hopes we're riding on it.
Just kind of create that sense of urgency now and
hopefully you can kind of things can click and you
snap out of it and then carry that through the
rest of the season.
Speaker 1: Great stuff as always, friend, thank you for the time.
We'll get you back on our normal Wednesday spot next week.
We thank you and talk soon.