The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros 2nd Baseman Brenden Rodgers Joins the Show

Episode Date: April 8, 2025

Astros 2nd Baseman Brenden Rodgers Joins the Show

Thank you, Ross. Brendan Rogers now with us from Seattle, Washington, where the Astros and Manors are going to play game two of the series against the M's. Brendan, it's Matt and Ross. Thank you for joining us. First of all, welcome to Houston. And my man with a team that has struggled a little bit offensively, top to bottom. You have been a nice bright spot.

What has it been like wearing the Astros gear for the last few weeks? Yeah, it's been fun. First of all, thanks for having me on. I appreciate the opportunity. It's been a fun first couple weeks, you know, spring training. Showing up a little late spring training, obviously, it was a little frustrating trying to figure out the details on everything, you know, where I was going to end up.

And, you know, I'm very fortunate with where I ended up. And I'm looking forward to, you know, getting to know a lot more people around the Houston area and also winning some more. ball games. You know, I love the story about you because when you were asked about the Astros, you're like, wait a minute, Jose L Tuve's a second basement. So

for our audience, it doesn't know about this, you're sitting here trying to figure out where you want to play baseball in 2025, and then your agent says the Astros are calling about you. That had to been, I don't want to say a mild shock. I'd probably be a pretty significant shock, correct? Yeah, definitely a big shock.

You know, I think I initially saw it when when, you know, the talks with obviously Bregman about coming back to Houston and Jose possibly, you know, being open to playing outfield. And, you know, I kind of, you know, I didn't really understand if that was, you know, just for a Bregman thing or, you know, open for other players as well. But obviously, Jose and I share the same agent. And I kind of reached out a couple days after that. after we were kind of silent for a couple days on, you know, finding where I was going to end up. And, you know, I kind of just reached out.

I was like, is he still, you know, open to, you know, playing some left field, you know, because I would love to be a part of a winning franchise and a winning organization. So he got back to me about a day or two later and said that he was obviously still open to playing some outfield. And, yeah, the rest, you know, the rest is history. I'm blessed to have this opportunity. You know, you have spent most of your career with the Colorado Rockies, and look, your OPS numbers were obviously very good there, and a lot of teams of the players have been in that situation.

Is it as much fun, or is there like, was there an undue pressure maybe for some of the guys there because you were expected because the ball travels so well there, that if you're not winning games, you know, scoring seven, eight runs, that it was considered a disappointment. Yeah, you know, obviously. I say there's some good and bad things, I would say, about Denver, obviously, the good part. The field is big. You know, there's definitely a lot of hits to be had there.

You know, the outfielders kind of have to respect the altitude and play a little deeper. And, you know, those kind of those blooper hits are kind of falling most of the time. And then obviously, if you, you know, you square a ball up, get it at the, you know, in the air at the proper launch angle, you know, it's going to carry. pretty well. I would say it's not necessarily easy to hit homers there. In my opinion, you know, the field is is rather, rather large to the gaps. You know, you got a pretty much 425, 430 to center. I've seen balls hit left center, right center at over, you know, on statcasts over 420 feet that have either been doubles or even I've seen some get caught. So, you know, it's really depending on the day, day games, you know, the ball does fly quite a bit more. And then obviously the altitude,

the altitude definitely, be honest, definitely wore on me over the last couple years. You know, it's not easy playing there. I'm sure a lot of guys that have played there or have played there as visiting players will tell you the same thing. You know, it's walking up steps, you know, hitting a single, hitting a double, you know, it really does gas. You know, and I'm sure a lot of guys can vouch for me on that. But yeah, like I said, I'm just blessed to still be playing this game and have the Astros believe in, you know, my abilities and still be able to, you know, help perform and help the team win.

And what is that like for you playing your whole Major League career in Colorado? And now did you get over here and is there anything you're trying to do differently or you're trying to keep things consistently? consistent as far as your swing in your approach? Yeah, I would say, you know, I had a last year, and I would say even the previous year, 23, I had a pretty high ground ball percentage. And, you know, obviously you don't really want to hit ground balls at Coorsfield.

So I was kind of in a little weird place. You know, I was hitting the ball hard, you know, against catching barrels. But obviously they weren't coming off my bat at, you know, maybe the right launch angle that I was kind of looking for. four. So I kind of went into the off season really focusing on, you know, trying, not lifting the ball, but, you know, catching the ball at a better angle. And I've kind of switched some things up with the bat I've been swinging. I've also, you know, widen my stance a little bit. And I've always,

I've always kind of had my hands in my stance pretty high up kind of towards my, towards my right year and kind of just waving them around not really not really knowing towards the last two years really known where my barrel was going going in and out of the zone and one of the first things uh the hitting coaches all the you know all the coordinators and the biomechanics guys and the big league coaches over here were one of the first things they said was maybe maybe just widen up the stance a little bit lay the bat rest the bat on your shoulder and kind of preset it in a launch position that, you know, I could repeat consistently. And, you know, we really grinded that out in spring training, had some success in spring training.

You know, was hitting the ball hard. You know, I really struggled with sinkers last year, right-handed sinkers. And being able to put those balls in the air in spring training was a huge thing for me. I can't remember the last time I pulled a right-handed, you know, sinker. you know, 94, 95, 96, full side in the air. And I did that a, did that a couple times in spring. So it was a really good feeling, you know, to see the, you know, the hard work and the stuff we've been doing in the cage, you know, correlate to the in-game stuff. So I really just been trying to tweak minor things in the cage, you know, throughout spring.

And, you know, now, now the season's obviously started and really just trying to hone in on what I'm trying to accomplish. and obviously my approach. And I think, you know, we're on to something. And it's been a really good, really good change so far. Brendan Rogers with us here on a Sports Talk 7-90. I'm glad you brought that up because, Brendan, we deal with a lot of the fans and, you know, the bats have been struggling.

So the first thing fans like to go to is, ah, fire the hitting coaches. So just for you, what has it, sounds like it's been a pretty positive experience with you working with Snicker and Centron and the rest of the staff. Yeah, I mean, I have, you know, nothing but respect for these guys.

They, you know, they really dialed into, you know, the way my body was moving. And they basically broke down in spring training why, you know, why the ground ball rate was so high. And what I was doing at certain parts of my swing that were maybe causing, you know, maybe a little drifting into my front leg, which is causing the barrel and my hands to come in at a steeper angle, which, you know, obviously I'm hitting. the ball. I was hitting the ball hard, you know, just really couldn't get over that, you know, that top spin kind of hook, hook swing. And now really just working on direction and keeping the swing short and simple. You know, I always thought I had a pretty simple,

simple approach and simple swing. But, you know, sometimes it did get big, certain situations, but I'm really just trying to focus on being short, compact, you know, using the whole field, staying up the middle using you know obviously different pitchers you have to have um different directional thoughts on you know where you want to hit the ball but um but yeah i think the biggest thing for me right now is it's saying short and compact being staying within myself and you know keeping that direction you know usually mostly to center to right center and allowing the barrel to you know adjust its way through the zone if you know if i get a heater you know on the inner half of the plate.

So, yeah. Brandon, hey, it was great to visit with you. Next time we're going to talk to you later on the year, hopefully. You'll give us an update of how much hair product the Astros have put out there because they've been always spending a lot of money on Mains in this organization. Ryan, Stanick, you got Arrogati, you've got yourself. So let us know about the hair product game before the end of the year. Would you do that for us?

Yeah, I'm hoping, you know, hoping to get a little connection there. I would love to do that because we do have some good hair. on this team for sure. Yeah, well, I'm bald, so I'm jealous of everything you guys can carry at this point. Hey, Brendan, welcome to Houston. Congratulations on your early success, and we'll look forward to watching you prosper this year. Thanks for the time.