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Speaker 1: One of our favorite parts of the week, especially during

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baseball season, has to spend ten to eleven collity minutes

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with our friend Brian Bogus Evic Space City Home Network,

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and he's with us here every Wednesday at eleven o'clock

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on seven ninety Brian, Good morning to you. Jeremy Paynia

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goes deep yesterday. I guess the number one thing about

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him this morning is how he wakes up on how

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that finger feels?

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Speaker 2: Right? Yeah, that's you know. Always the question with guys

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coming back from injury is once the adrenaline wears off,

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how did it feel? Now? How do you feel with

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a little bit of just general movement in there, maybe

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a ball that gets in on your hands a little bit.

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But in terms of what we saw on the field,

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I didn't see anything that made me think, Okay, maybe

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he's not ready. I guess, you know. The other conversation

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that you have to have is how do you feel

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from a timing standpoint, you know, where you're seeing the ball? Well,

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did you feel like you're tracking? Well, obviously you hit

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a ball into the train tracks, I would assume it

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was seeing it pretty good, But you know, does he

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need a couple more at bats they have, you know,

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workout today that he can get some swings in. But yeah,

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all all signs point to him looking like he's ready

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to go, which that is a massive bullet dodged for

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the Astros.

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Speaker 1: I think Brian, we can generally speaking, figure out what

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it would feel like to have an injured finger or

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a hand and putting the bat back in and swinging

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as hard as you can. But since you played the

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game and we're at the highest level, tell me any

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elements like that in your career and what kind of adjustments,

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whether it's you or a fellow teammate, you had to

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make knowing that maybe your finger or hand was not

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one hundred percent.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, anytime you have hand finger wrisk and

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you're talking about a swing, you know, first of all,

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you want to make sure that your your swing in

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general is not compromised. Right. You don't want to create

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bad habits that you're going to have to work through

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and try to figure out for a month because you

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were trying to get into a game. You know a

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day or two early that that's first and foremost. But

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you know, the funny thing is is oftentimes if you're

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taking a good on time pure swing and hitting the

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ball flush. It typically won't bother you where you feel

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it is a miss hit right, get something off the

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end and it stings your hands a little bit, or

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you're fooled on a pitch and you kind of get

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caught way out front and you flail at it a

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little bit. That's when you feel it in a hand

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or a finger or something. So it didn't look like

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he had any of those swings yesterday, so it probably

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don't feel it. But I would think that's kind of

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the situation that you want to avoid, is kind of

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taking an awkward swing and you know, adjusting on the

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fly and doing something that maybe you're not comfortable.

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Speaker 3: Doing and sticking with that, but going a little bit

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to the outfield. I'm just curious your thoughts about the

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push and pull of handling yord On Alvarez of him

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wanting to be in left field, and we interviewed Joe

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Spondi and said, yeah, Jordon sends me like highlights of

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him being out in the outfield, and he wants to

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do that, and he's a human being and he wants

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to be help the team even the best way possible.

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But the organization wants to protect him. How do you think.

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I mean, just let's just go from like an organizational

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standpoint of trying to handle that push and pull when

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it comes to a guy who needs to be your

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team MVP if you're going to go where you want

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to this season.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, A lot of it from from just you know,

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kind of keeping him at ease with it. A lot

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of it has to do with trust and communication, right,

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you have to have the trust built in that he thinks,

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even if you're doing something that he doesn't necessarily agree with,

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that you're doing it because you think it's best for him.

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He has to trust that, and then also openly communicate

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why you're doing it, what you think it can benefit from,

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from you know, the entire season standpoint, how it affects

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other people, how it will affect him, and make sure

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that he even if he doesn't agree with it, he

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understands your thinking on that. But and then you know,

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from a from the organization standpoint, I mean, it's a

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risk and reward play, right. You know, you're you're trying

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to avoid the risk of losing him to an injury

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that he suffers out there so that you can, you know,

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seemingly maximize your offense by him being in the lineup

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every day. Well, if that calculus starts to change over

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the course of the season, maybe you have a little

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bit more risk tolerance of putting him out there if

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it means maximizing your offense by getting all of those

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infielders into the game at the same time on a

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regular basis. So it's you know, I think they've made

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it well known what their preferences going into the season.

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I don't necessarily think that that has to be the case,

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hard stop, no matter what. As we get a little bit.

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Speaker 3: Further in, Brian Bogosovik was us here on Sports Talk

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seven ninety and then just like strictly from jord on,

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it's kind of crazy to say, like, ask does he

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have something to prove? Because it's been with the injuries

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when he's locked in. He's one of the most dangerous

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hitters on the entire planet, and it just has unfortunately

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been injury after injury for him. Do you feel like,

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I don't know his mindset of having something to prove

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or anything like that.

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Speaker 2: I don't. I don't think. I don't think I would

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think of it as something to prove. I just think

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it's just a desire to be able to show you know,

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we we all know what he can do because we've

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seen it. And but I don't I don't know that

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on a national standpoint, or just a game as a

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whole or or a fan necessarily of another team would

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really appreciate what he is as a hitter. And I

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don't often hear people outside of Houston discussing him in

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that that elite group of the Aaron Judges and show, hey,

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Otani's of who who are the best hitters in the world.

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And I absolutely, I absolutely think he's in that category.

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But you know, he's going to have to get one

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hundred and fifty plus games of at bats to be

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able to accumulate the kind of numbers to kind of

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announce himself on the safe so prove it to us. No,

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I think everybody is of the mind that he's one

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of the best hitters in the world, but yeah, maybe

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on a on a national level to just kind of

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be spoken of in that you know, top tier of hitters.

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Speaker 1: Well, obviously we just got word within the last couple

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of minutes as bry S Matthews has made the roster.

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Speaker 3: Jeremy pinion as well.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so there you go.

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Speaker 2: They must have been listened to us. So yeah, well, I.

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Speaker 1: Mean yeah, I mean, let me take you. You're getting a

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lot of carriage on this radio show, plus your Sehn

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people trust a Brian focus of an opinion.

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Speaker 2: So good for you.

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Speaker 1: All right, So, uh does Bryce I mean steady diet

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of games. I don't know how much he's going to play.

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Versatility everything I think was one of the storylines for

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him coming out of spring training and him moving around

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as much as he did.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think it's he showed a lot

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in spring. He showed that, you know, maybe maybe he's

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turning a corner and there's being a little bit more

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contact and a little more hit ability ability versus just

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you know, all or nothing power. He can just you know,

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when you're talking about a guy who's not going to

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play on an everyday basis, regardless of what the timeshare

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split is, it's not going to be every day at

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least at first. You've got to be able to impact

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the team and the game in different ways. And he

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can do so much with the glove and with his

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legs and you know, with the power. So I think

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from from that standpoint, he earned that spot, But just

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from an overall roster construction standpoint, I think it just

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that was the move that made the most sense to

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complement the other pieces that are on the roster.

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Speaker 1: Also a minor move, Christian Vasquez makes the team as

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the backup catcher. That to me says that Walter Yannick

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means to do everything. You can't give it the big

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leaks as soon as possible. Is that how you kind

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of feel about this situation.

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Speaker 2: I think it's certainly speeds his timeline up, or maybe

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the organization's timeline for him. Yeah, it's you know, that's

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a that's a difficult situation. I know the team and

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the organization really likes cess our salas are. It's just,

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you know, one of the things that you have to have,

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you know, if you're talking about fall black plans, you

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have to have more of a known quantity, and even

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have that known quantity is a couple a couple of

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years removed from being at his act, you know best,

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as a player. They're very comfortable with Christian Vaskis if

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they get in a situation where he might have to

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play a little bit more than once every four or

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five games, that they know what they're going to get

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out of that, so that that's that is a difficult situation,

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but obviously one that they felt like just is one

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that has to be made.

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Speaker 1: Do you think that yan Air is kind of feeling

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this pressure a little bit because of the fact that

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the numbers defensively were so poor last year. And look,

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you can live with a guy that may be below

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average catcher in terms of framing and throwing guys out

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if the big slug is there. What's going through his

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mind as we think about twenty twenty six and is

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this need to be necessar the breakout year, but the

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year that needs to be the consistent power here that

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we think the DS can be.

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Speaker 2: I think absolutely. I think from from two stands points

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from from his own personal standpoint, this is a huge

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year for him. I mean, he's at the point in

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his career where he's had enough time where he should

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be turning that corner and becoming the hitter that everybody

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knows he can be, which which is, you know, a

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lot of contact and a high average to go with

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a lot of power. It's certainly it's always going to

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be a bat first type of catcher, but he's got

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the ability he's got a strong arm. He can throw

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guys out even if he's not the best defensive catcher.

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But you know the team needs him to be that

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as well, because you know, you're getting to a point

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to where this younger crop of players is now ascending

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to being the guys on the team. Right. This is

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your bounce team. This is Jeremy Payne this team, this

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is Hunter Brown's team, and Yiner is supposed to be

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in that group for the team moving forward.

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Speaker 3: And before we get you out, Brian, just how do

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you see this season playing out? I know it's kind

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of a question because there's there's so many question marks

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when it comes to the pitching and the hitting, but

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I just your thoughts on how the season might shape

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up and where they'll end up in the aos standings.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's it's really a cliche thing to say

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health is going to be a big deal, but I

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think because there is a lot of variance on this

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team between what you think could maybe be the best

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case scenario and a worst case scenario. If they a

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healthy version of this team, the lineup is deep, they're

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you know, a little bit more dynamic offensively. There are

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some guys who can run a little bit. And I

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think what I was most encouraged by the spring is

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the pitching, not just the high end pitching of Hunter

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Brown at the top being a cy young candidate and

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Emi looking like he is the top of the rotation,

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but also the depth I think they can. They have

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more than enough pitching to navigate through one hundred and

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sixty two. So I think that for a team that

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was on the outside looking in at the end of

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the year, with a good, strong, long start, I think

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that they're really going to push a Mariners team who's

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looking to make the next step as well.