Speaker 1: Eleven o'clock Sports Talks seven on and let's spend ten
calling a minutes with our good friend Brian Bogosevic, who
is a television star and Space City Home Network, and
he's a star here on Sports Talk seven ninety on
a weekly basis. He joined us every Wednesday at eleven o'clock. Hey, Brian,
we were just talking about this a few minutes ago.
The Astros. Look, it's been a it's been better obviously,
but it's about a five hundred team so far, give
or take a couple of games. But the amount of
wins against quality opponents, this has been pretty stout.
Speaker 2: You knock off the match, you got the pod Rason.
You've taken the.
Speaker 1: First two games against the best team at least record
wise the American League.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's a very encouraging thing that some
of their best ball has been played against the better teams.
You know, oftentimes when we see teams coming in to
play the Astros and you're looking at you know, what
have they done over the past week or two. You know,
a lot of time teams who look like they're hot,
you know, have come off a series where they've been
playing Colorado or the White Sox or somebody of that nature.
So when you're beating good opponents, when you're beating teams
that you know, pitch very well, hit very well, and
kind of have all around game, I think if the
sign that number one, the Astros are starting to play better.
But really we know what kind of team is in
there and when it all comes around, what they can be,
and that's a team that can stand toe to toe
with anybody. I don't think there was any question that
that was in there. It was just a question of
when are we going to see it and then how
consistently can we see it once it comes out?
Speaker 2: And the fact I also love it.
Speaker 1: Not only are you beating the good teams, but you
were fell behind in both games against the Trent and
put together these crooked number innings. I think we've seen
more crookand number innings than the Astros in the last week, Brian,
you saw in the first three or four weeks of
the season.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's nice to see that there are different paths
to victory for the team. You know, it seemed like
the wins that they were getting early it was, you know,
we're going to have one inning where we score a
couple of runs and then you know, we're going to
basically turn it over to the pitchers and try to
hang on for dear life. See the fact that they
can extend leave and add on late. You know, have
an inning where they score on a big hit to
drive in a couple runs, but then maybe get another
hit or two later like they did yesterday, or just
you know, we can get down early and if our
pitcher lets is hanging around, we can go beat up
on a bullpen and have a win. You know, you've
got to be able to win multiple ways. And I
think even even when we see the best version of
this team, it's going to be very pitching forward, and
they're going to be a pitching in defense first team.
But they've got to be able to outslug people every
once in a while. And I think it's nice to
see that the offense can kind of lead the way
when need be.
Speaker 4: Brian Bogosvik with us here on Sports Talk seven ninety
and there's been some shuffling in the lineup. Let's just
start philosophically first, what do you think about how big
of a deal it is for a team with lineup
construction and also for a player individually, where you're going
to be in the lineup.
Speaker 3: I think it is a big deal, and it isn't
a big deal. You know, it's not a big deal
in that you're going to find some magic formula and
everything's just going to fall into play. So the way
that the offense is going to start being the best
version of itself is going to be, you know, a
collection of individuals getting it going themselves. But and that's
not just going to happen because if you put him
in a certain order. However, you know, doing things on
a day to day or week to week basis to
maximize what is going right is always a good thing.
And also, you know, doing things to get guys a
little bit more comfortable, you know, the thing without tube,
if he felt like he was being rushed coming in
in the top half of the first inning to hit,
then you know, make him feel comfortable and maybe that
gets it going a little bit. You know, it's it's
playing mind games as well as playing you know, matchup
type of games, and that's you know, kind of the
the art of being a manager is you've got to
to manage people and it's not just okay, what what
does what do the numbers look like on paper, say
that that it should be. I think it's also uh
you know, telling to to the quality of people they
have in the clubhouse that everybody's open to it. You know,
there there are a lot of teams and a lot
of players across the league where if you start messing
with guys and you know, move a guy from first
to third, or from from third to sixth in the order, whatever,
you know, it'll it'll put them into pout mode. And
that is not the case with anybody in this team.
And I think, you know, the number one reason for
that is that jose Al tub is the guy who's
most open to whatever needs to be done. Uh So,
so it's nice to see that the players are giving
the coaches the leeway to go and move some things around.
Speaker 4: And one of the things that's been moving around is
Christian Walker bumped down. He's been hitting a lot better,
so we're seeing some home runs from him as well.
What do you see from his approach and swings that
that is making this improvement.
Speaker 2: Confidence?
Speaker 3: I the swing doesn't necessarily look any different than it did.
Uh The swing decisions certainly look better, and a lot
of that has to do with trusting himself and just
trusting that he's fine. You know when when you're looking
up at your batting average and it says one fifty,
you know, it just puts that doubt in your mind
of like, man, maybe maybe I'm not seeing it. Well,
maybe my swing isn't going to be there if the
ball does show up in the middle of the plate.
But if you all of a sudden believe that you're
going to recognize and swing at good pitches and take
tough pitches, and you believe that if you swing at
a heater down the middle, your barrel is going to
get there, you know, all of a sudden, you can
be freed up a little bit. And he looks very
free and the swings that he's taking, obviously, the balls
that he's hitting and driving, they look good. You know,
he's had some balls that he's you know, solved off
that he's taken really aggressive, you know, convicted types of swings.
He doesn't look like he's feeling for anything anymore, which
is where he was for the first you know, fIF
team twenty games, when he was searching for something, and
it looks like he found whatever it was he's searching
for us.
Speaker 2: Buggie the roster construction.
Speaker 1: You know, there have been a lot of managers over
the years that have always tried to get at least
one left in their bullpen. Some teams go without it.
I know the Astros during part of their heyday would
go without a left handed reliever. The Astros have bucked
that trend with all the guys that can go from
the south fall side of things. First of all, are
you intrigued by that? And is are we going to
see a new trend because it feels like to me
was still predominantly a ryan handed hitting lineup like the
Detroit had. You can definitely use that to your left
hand hitting lineup. You can use that to your advantage
in terms of being able to try to mix things
up a little bit, especially if you've got teams that
you'll be coming up with a primary left hand handed lineup.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it'll certainly play in fear favor when you have
those lefty dominant lineups that you're facing. I've always been
a proponent of you want the best guys you know,
and of course you want different looks in different matchups,
but you know, not at the sake of quality stuff.
And they were kind of in a situation coming out
of spring training where it was let's just take our
best guys and we'll figure it out from there. Now,
you know, you get the four lefties. You know, hater,
don't even put him into that conversation. His role is
we you know closer, we know what that is. It's
been a really positive thing that both Brian King and
Steven Okurt have been good against righty's, especially O Kurt,
you know, the kind of book on him coming in
was really good against lefties. You know, don't know how
he's going to be against righty's. He's dominated both. So
now all of a sudden, you don't need those guys
to be matchup type pictures. They're more leverage type pictures.
And then throw Susan in the midst where you can
you know, spot him into places where you like him
for different parts of the lineup. So it gives Joe
a lot of options to play the handedness matchup and
the platoon matchup. But what it's also been is Brian
King and Steven Oker kind of emerging as guys that
we can lean on at the end of games. Also,
so yeah, best guys are going to get the biggest innings,
and they've got guys who have who are making cases
be to be those guys.
Speaker 1: We're about to see a six man rotation coming up
with a limit number of off days, and whether that's
Blue Ball who gets the start as in that group,
or whether Lance mccullors takes that spot. How do you
massage that you're gonna be down an arm in the bullpen?
What are your general thoughts about a six man rotation
and how much do you think that Joe's got to
differently manage because of the fact he's got one less
guy to go to.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it it becomes a necessary thing, you know, when
you have these stretches of you know, sixteen seventeen games
in a row and then it adds up to you know,
it's like a twenty five and twenty four days or
twenty four games and twenty five days whatever. That takes
a toll on a pitching staff, and especially when you
have a guy, you know, Withznaski, he threw like eighty
innings last year. He's not going to be able to
throw one hundred sixty, one hundred and eighty innings. So
you're gonna have to massage it at some point. It
all comes down to what kind of lengths are you
getting out of your starters, and with you know, Hunter Brown,
you know, seemingly being a lock for six plus innings.
Fromber's been that way for most of the last three years.
If you can consistently get those guys deep to where
you're not overextending the guys in the bullpen, then you'll
be fine. If all of a sudden it starts, it starts,
you know, you get a three inning start, a two
inning start where where it throws the bullpen into flocks,
and all of a sudden you're eating up innings and
you're having to bring in Josh Hater in a situation
to where you just need somebody to throw. That's where
you get yourself into trouble. But it was going to
happen at some point because of a scheduling and b
just trying to limit some innings for guys. And you know,
maybe you're gonna have to lean into pictures every once
in a while and tell a starter you know you're
gonna have to push to one hundred or one hundred
and five. You know, I would especially point to Hunter
and Fromber as guys who you can lean into a
little bit more heavily, but yeah, it's something that you
know is going to have to happen at some point
in the season, and you just hope your starters can
hold the line for it.
Speaker 4: Uh, Cam Smith's with the day off yesterday, Brian, what
have you been seeing from Amy had that big two
home run game, but things have slowed for him since.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's still a work in progress. You know, it's
still a lot of the same things that he's been
working on from the start of the season. Right he's
trying to get a little more rhythm pre pitch, which
will allow him to get started on time, which will
allow the bath head to get out front. You know,
when you're when your primary focus as a hitter is
I'm trying to get the bat out and get to
the fastball, you can also become susceptible to breaking balls,
and sometimes you can get caught in this little in
between where you're not quite out there to really get
on the heater, but at the same time, you're sped
up enough to where you're not laying off the breaking balls.
So this is why it's really difficult to learn at
the major league level, because you're not going to get
mistakes to help you out along the way you're not
going to get you know, guys, you know, a start
day from a guy who doesn't really belong. You're just
getting nasty stuff every day. So he is better. It
is much better than it was at the start of
the season in terms of where his contact point is
and where he can hit the ball, you know, driving
the ball in the middle of the field. But he's
still trying to get going a little bit and get
that bad hat out front.
Speaker 1: All right, late word coming in for let you run.
Lance mccullory is going to start on Sunday. Boy, this
has been a long, winding, confusing, aggravating road for lm jane.
He's going to finally get the opportunity to get back
on that mound for the first time and quite some time.
Speaker 3: This is I'll be honest with you, I don't know
that I can think of anybody who's had that much
time off. You know, who's anybody who's down for more
than a year plus. It's almost like you never see
them come back. And this as big of a win
as this is for the team and the organization, you
just got to be happy for the guy. I mean,
what it's like to come back from injury, what it's
like to rehab, go down to Florida and rehab on
your own, show up at the field and do all
your work before the rest of the team is there. Like,
it sucks and it's miserable, it's depressing. So I'm just
happy for Lance that he gets to come back and
get back out there on the mound. And you know,
add into the fact that if he's right, that's a
damn good arm that you're adding into that location. So
that's exciting news.
Speaker 1: Baugie, thank you for the visit, has always great job
on the Space City stuff and look forward to visiting
with you again next Wednesday.
Speaker 2: Enjoy your the rest of your week, all right, I
see you. Thank you. Brian Bogos epic with us here
every Wednesday.