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Speaker 1: Thank you. Ross. Brendan Rodgers now with us from Seattle, Washington,

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where the Astros and Manners are going to play Game

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two of the series against the MS. Brendon. It's Matt

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and Ross, thank you for joining us. First of all,

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welcome to Houston, uh and my man with a team

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that has uh started a little bit offensively top to bottom.

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You have been a nice bright spot. What has it

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been like we're in the Astros gear for the last

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few weeks.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been, Uh, it's been fun. Well, first off,

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thanks for having me on. I I appreciate, uh, the

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opportunity it's been. It's been a fun first couple of weeks,

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you know, spring training. Showing up a little late spring

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train obviously is it was a little frustrating trying to

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figure out the details on everything. You know, where I

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was going to end up. And you know, I'm very

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fortunate with with where with where I ended up, and

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I'm looking forward to, uh, you know, getting getting to

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know a lot more people around the Houston area and

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also winning some more ballgames.

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Speaker 1: You know, I love the story about you because when

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you were asked about the Astros, You're like, wait a minute,

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jose L two bays a second basement. So, uh, for

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our audience, it doesn't know about this. You're sitting here

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trying to figure out where you want to play baseball

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in twenty twenty five, and then your agent says the

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Astros are calling about you. That had to been I

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don't want to say a mild shock. I would probably

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be a pretty significant shock, correct.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely a big shock. You know. I think I

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initially saw it when when you know, the talks with

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obviously Bregman about coming back to Houston and Jose possibly

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you know, being open to playing outfield, and uh, you

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know I I kind of, you know, I didn't really

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understand if if that was you know, just for for

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a Ragman thing or you know, open for other other

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players as well, but obviously Jose and I to share

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the same agent, and uh, I kind of reached out

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a couple of days after that, after we were kind

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of silent for a couple of days on you know,

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finding where I was going to end up, and you know,

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I kind of just reached out. I was like, as

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he's still you know, open to you know playing some

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left field, you know, because I would love to be

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a part of a winning franchise and a waiting winning organization.

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So uh he he got back to me about a

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day or two later and said that he was obviously

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still still open to playing some outfield and uh yeah,

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the rest, you know, the rest is history. So I'm

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blessed to have this opportunity.

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Speaker 1: You know, you have spent most of your career with

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the color of Rockies and and look your numbers, your

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ops numbers were obviously very good there, and a lot

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of teams other players have been in that situation. Is

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it as much fun or is there like an was

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there an undue pressure maybe for some of the guys

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there because you were expected because the ball travels so

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well there that if you're not winning games, you know,

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scoring seven eight runs, that it was considered a disappointment.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, obviously there's there's I say, there's some

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good and bad things I would say about Denver. Obviously

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the good part. The field is big. You know, there's

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there's definitely a lot of hits to be had there.

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You know, the outfielders kind of have to respect the

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altitude and play a little deeper, and you know, those

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kind of those blooper hits are kind of falling most

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of the time. And and then obviously if you you know,

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you you square them all up, get it at the

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you know, in the air, at the proper launch angle.

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You know it's it's gonna carry pretty well. I would say,

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it's it's not necessarily easy to hit homers there in

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my opinion. You know, the field is is rather rather

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large to the gaps. You know, you gotta pretty much

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for four twenty five, four thirty the center. I've seen

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balls hit left center, right center at over you know,

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on spot cast over four hundred and twenty feet that

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have either been doubles or even I've seen some get caught.

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So you know, it's really depending on the day day games.

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You know, the ball does fly quite a bit more.

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And then obviously the altitude, the altitude definitely, be honest,

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definitely wore on me over the last couple of years.

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You know, it's it's not easy playing there. I'm sure

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a lot of guys that have played there or have

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played there as visiting players, we'll tell you the same thing.

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You know, it's it walking up steps, you know, hitting

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a single, hitting a double, you know it it really

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does gass you. And I'm sure a lot of guys

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can vouch for me on that. But but yeah, I'm

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like I said, I'm just blessed to still be playing

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this game and have the Astros believe in, you know,

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my ability and still be able to you know, help

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perform and help help the team win.

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Speaker 3: And what is that like for you? Playing your whole

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major league career at in Colorado and now did you

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get over here? And is there anything you're trying to

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do differently or you're trying to keep things consistently consistent

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as far as you're swinging your approach.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say, you know, I had a last

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year and I would say even the previous year twenty three,

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I had a pretty high ground ball percentage and you know,

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obviously you don't really want to hit ground balls at

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course fields. So I was kind of in a little

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weird place. You know, I was hitting the ball hard,

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you know, get catching barrels, but obviously they weren't coming

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off my bat at you know, maybe the right launch

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angle that I was kind of looking for. So I

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kind of went into the off season really focusing on,

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you know, trying not lifting the ball, but you know,

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catching the ball at a at a better angle and

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I've kind of switched some things up with the bat

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I've been swinging. I've also you know, widened my stants

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a little bit, and and I've always I've always kind

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of had my hands in my stants pretty high up,

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kind of towards my towards my right ear and kind

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of just waving them around, not really not really knowing

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towards the last two years, really knowing where my barrel

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was going going in and out of the zone. And uh,

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one of the first things the hitting coaches, all the

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you know, all the coordinators and the biomechanics guys and

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the big league coaches over here were one of the

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first things they said was maybe maybe just widen up

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the stants a little bit, lay the bat rest the

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bout on your shoulder and kind of preset it in

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a in a launch position that you know, I could

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repeat consistently. And uh, you know, we really grinded that

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out in spring training, had some had some success in

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spring training. You know, was hitting the ball hard. You know,

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I really struggled with sinkers last year, right handed sinkers

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and being able to put those balls in the air,

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and spring training was was a huge, a huge thing

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for me, I don't I can't remember the last time

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I pulled a right handed you know thinker, you know,

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ninety four, ninety five, ninety six full side in the air,

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and I did that, did that a couple of times

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in the spring. So it was a it was a

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really good feeling, you know, to see the you know,

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the hard work and the stuff we've been doing in

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the cage, you know, correlate to the end game stuff.

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So I really just been trying to tweak minor things

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in the cage, you know, throughout spring and you know,

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now now the season's obviously started, and really just trying

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to hone in on what I'm trying to accomplish and

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obviously my approach and I think, you know, we've we're

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onto something and it's been a it's been a really good,

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really good change so far.

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Speaker 3: Brendan Rodgers with us here on a Sports Talk seven. Hoey,

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I'm glad you brought that up because Brittany, we deal

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with a lot of the fans and you know, the

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Bats have been struggling, so the first thing fans like

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to go to is fire the hitting coaches. So, uh,

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I just for you has it as it sounds like

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it's been a pretty positive experience with you working with

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Snicker and Centron and the rest of the staff.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I have you know, you know, nothing

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but respect for these guys. They you know, they really

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dialed into, you know, the way my body was moving,

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and they basically broke down and spring training why you know,

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why the ground ball rate was so high, and what

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what I was doing at certain parts of my swing

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that I were maybe causing you know, maybe a little

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little drifting into my front leg, which is causing the

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back the barrel and my hands to come in at

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a steeper angle, which you know, obviously I'm hitting the ball.

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I was hitting the ball hard, you know, just really

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couldn't get over that, you know, that top spin kind

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of hook hooked swing. And now really just working on

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direction and uh keeping the swing short and simple. You know,

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I always thought I had a pretty simple, simple approach

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and simple swing, but you know, sometimes it did get

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big certain situations. But I'm really just trying to focus

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on being short, compact, you know, using the whole field,

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staying up the middle, using you know, obviously different pitchers

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you have to have different you know, directional thoughts on

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you know, where you want to hit the ball. But

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but yeah, I think the biggest thing for me right

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now is staying short and compact, being staying within myself

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and you know, keeping that direction you know, usually mostly

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to center to right center, and allowing the barrel to

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you know, adjust its way through the zone if you know,

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if I get a heater you know, on the inner

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half of the plate.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, Brandon, Hey, it was great to visit with you.

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Next time, we're going to talk to you later in

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her hopefully will be give us an update of how

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much hair product the astros are put out there, because

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they've been always spending a lot of money on mains

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in this organization. Ryan Standing, you get Arrogetty, you got yourself.

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So let us know about the hair product game before

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the end of the year. Would you do that for us?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm hoping, you know, hoping to get a little

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connection there. I would love to love to do that

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because we do have some We do have some good

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hair on this team for sure. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well I'm bald, so I'm jealous of everything you guys

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can carry at this point. Hey, Brandon, welcome to Houston.

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Congratulations in your early success, and we'll look forward to

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watching you prosper this year. Thanks for the time