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The Roost Podcast | Ep. 30 – Anthony Rendon and baseball’s delayed season

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Former Rice baseball third baseman and reigning World Series Champion Anthony Rendon joins The Roost Podcast. We talk baseball’s postponed season and more.

The Roost’s extended offseason series continued this week with a superstar guest. Houston native, Rice baseball great and reigning World Series Champion Anthony Rendon joined the show. He recapped what life has been life for him over the last several months, from winning the World Series to what he’s doing to help those impacted by the coronavirus in Houston and California.

Rendon is the latest in a fantastic run of Rice-related guests. If you haven’t yet, make sure you check out our conversations with Christian Covington, JP Heath, Erica Ogwumike and more.

You can always find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, Give a listen to Episode 30.


Episode 30 Notes

  • Housekeeping — Your support means more than you know. If you like the show, please take a minute to rate and subscribe. Your voices help spread the show. Like the guests we’ve had on? Give them a shout on social media and say thanks! And while you’re at it, give the show a follow.
  • Anthony Rendon joins the show — With no season to speak of, Anthony Rendon took some time out of his schedule to join the podcast. We covered a lot of ground, hitting on a few of these topics:
    • What’s it like moving across the country during a pandemic?
    • The World Series (sorry, Houston Astros fans)
    • Why he signed with the Angels
    • What he’s doing to help those impacted by the coronavirus in Houston
    • How far he can throw a tee shirt inside Tudor Fieldhouse
    • His thoughts on an abbreviated or modified 2020 MLB season

Where can you find us?

Download and subscribe to The Roost Podcast on any of your favorite podcast providers. The show is available on iTunes, GooglePlay, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn and PodBean. Please consider leaving a review wherever you listen.

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Rice Baseball: Adding talent to a strong culture the key for 2021

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Rice baseball needs an infusion of talent. Combing a new recruiting class with better production from the existing roster gives hope for the Owls next season.

Weeks removed from an abbreviated season, Rice baseball is getting back to work. Head coach Matt Bragga and his staff are working the phones as best they can, trying to turn this difficult situation into growth on the recruiting front.

As things stand now the staff is excited about the next wave of Owls set to be on campus for the 2021 season. Normally there would be a real level of concern regarding an upcoming signing class arriving on campus. With the truncated MLB Draft structure, the odds of the Owls’ getting all of their guys to South Main should (theoretically) increase.

Current commit William Burbank is graded as a potential Top 10 round pick by Perfect Game. Several others can hit the 90s with their fastball. More than once, Bragga has mentioned this class as being the most talented he’s ever had. Reinforcements are coming.

More talent is half the battle. Bragga knows you can’t win without the players. But arranging those pieces into a cohesive unit takes time and deliberate influence. That’s piece is much harder to quantify.

“When you get chemistry, when you get culture built in the right direction, that’s when you can accomplish things that no one thinks you can accomplish. And and and that’s where we’re going. And I believe that with all my heart,” Bragga said, looking back at what the Owls were able to achieve this season.

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Culture, a buzzword of all buzzwords, is tested during hard times. A baseball team can’t find much more of a challenging environment that Rice did this season. When asked if the disappointing start slowed down the progress his team was making on the culture side, Bragga remained undeterred.

“For 2-14, Holy Smokes, I couldn’t ask for it to be better. It was fantastic. There was great chemistry and our players would say the same thing.”

Creating that engaged mindset through the midst of a ‘worst case scenario’ start is the baseball version of threading the needle. That Rice could hold constant through the storm, let alone come out ahead, could be evidence that Bragga’s roadmap to success is rooted in the right requirements. All we can do is take Bragga’s word for it. To this point, there’s been no evidence to the contrary.

Culture has been on his mind since he arrived, transitioning that intangible asset into black and white wins is the next step. One his team wasn’t able to take as often as they could have this season.

Thanks to recent NCAA legislation, the majority of those players are set to return to campus in 2021. Bragga’s perception will be put to the test. He’s not naive to that. He acknowledged “we’ve got work to do to get [this program] where it needs to go.”

Culture plus Talent equals wins remains the marching orders for Rice baseball. Thankfully, more talent is on the way.

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Rice Baseball: What’s next for Roel Garcia?

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Roel Garcia has the best arm on the Rice baseball pitching staff, but whether or not he ever pitches again for the Owls remains an unanswered question.

Rice baseball head coach Matt Bragga has coached many talented pitchers over his 20+ year coaching career. In terms of raw ability, few measure up to Owls’ hurler Roel Garcia.

Garcia had the best stuff on the Rice staff in 2020. The righty is unquestionably among, if not atop, the list of the best arms Bragga has ever worked with. That’s part of what makes the joint tenure of Garcia and Bragga at Rice disappointing. A player who had the potential to be the staff ace could leave south main without ever throwing a pitch for Bragga at Reckling Park.

An injury wiped out all of Garcia’s 2019 campaign. His recovery process bled into 2020, where he was expected to ease into a spot in the Rice weekend rotation. He threw two innings in a road start at UC Irvine, striking out three and allowing no runs. After the start, he was promptly shut down.

It’s possible he could have returned at the tail end of the season, but the chances of him becoming a weekend staple came to a screeching halt in February. A month later, the season was suspended, putting the end to any chance of Garcia pitching for Rice in 2020. The question hanging in the air is this: has Garcia’s Rice baseball career come to an end?

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There are several factors impacting where Garcia ends up in 2021. Health is first and foremost. If Garcia can get back to his usual self, his opportunities will increase significantly.

Then comes the MLB Draft, which will reportedly be shortened to as few as five rounds and pushed back to July. Even hurt, Garcia stands a decent chance to be selected. He was a 27th round pick last year without throwing a pitch. With the draft being trimmed significantly, the odds of Garcia elevating himself to that level seem less likely, but not impossible.

Should Garcia return, the NCAA’s proposed eligibility changes would make him a junior again. That would give him leverage in the 2021 draft, with the ability to return for another collegiate season in 2022.

Bragga has been an adamant supporter of Garciasince he arrived at Rice. “I want what’s best for Roel,” Bragga said, speaking of the junior’s uncertain future. There’s a real chance the Owls’ won’t see Garcia on the mound in Houston ever again. Or he could be their No. 1 for the next two seasons. There’s so much in the air right now.

No matter how things play out, Garcia’s talent and personality have made an impact on his teammates and the program. For now, we (and Garcia) just have to wait.

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Rice Baseball: New faces give hope through tenuous season

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It’s never too early for Rice baseball to start looking toward the future. The Owls have young talent on both sides of the diamond set to return in 2021.

Every Rice baseball player will be eligible for an additional year of eligibility thanks to a recent NCAA ruling. That’s good news for the Owls’ seniors, but regardless of who returns and who doesn’t, Rice has plenty of young talent waiting in the wings.

On the mound

The Rice baseball weekend rotation was going to look different in 2020. It seemed like the losses of Matt Canterino and Evan Kravetz would thrust the relatively untested arms behind them into the brightest spotlights of their young careers. JUCO transfer Alex DeLeon seemed to be the easy name to pencil into Friday nights, but with Roel Garcia and Dalton Wood both recovering from injuries, the rest of the rotation was up in the air.

Coach Matt Bragga had a very different read on the situation. He knew the Sunday job was going to be a work-in-progress, but he never wavered on his Saturday selection: sophomore hurler Blake Brogdon.

Brogdon through 1.1 innings as a freshman, ending the year with an eye-popping (and not in a good way) 27.00 ERA. The idea of him being the No. 2 to start the season was puzzling, albeit not impossible. Rice really didn’t have any alternatives who were both healthy and clear improvements. So Brogdon was the guy. And he was excellent.

Brogdon was arguably the best in his four turns through the rotation. Bragga cited “his poise, his determination, and work ethic” as drivers for his massive year-over-year improvement. He went at least five innings, allowing three or fewer runs against Texas, UC Irvine and Missouri State. His outing against Texas Tech was shorter (3.2 IP) but he only allowed one run.

Drake Greenwood, who had emerged as the Sunday starter, also had an impressive run. He led all Rice pitchers with a 3.94 ERA in four appearances, with three starts. His 16 strikeouts trailed only Brogdon’s 18. Greenwood’s 1.77 strikeout-t0-walk ratio was superb.

And then there was Brandon Deskins, who outside of a rough inning against Texas State was near lights out when he was on the bump. Deskins was one Bragga named as someone who had “made a big jump” in this abridged season.

At the plate

The bulk of the Rice baseball lineup was steered by upperclassmen. That left only a few rotational spots, mostly in the outfield and at DH, to be exchanged from day to day.

Newcomer Austin Bulman proved to be a mainstay in the Rice lineup, producing six multi-hit games. He was one of three hitters to appear in all 16 contests this season. He brought some power to a lineup that was more doubles-bent than one that aimed for the fences. Bulman’s two home runs represented a quarter of the Owls’ eight long balls on the season.

Daniel Hernandez went two-for-three on opening day but managed two hits in his next 21 plate appearances. Reserve catchers Eric Benitez and Cullen Hannigan both faired well in limited action from the batter’s box, going 1-for-2 and 2-for-6, respectively.

The most puzzling fizzled bat belonged to freshman Tyler LaRue, who earned the start at DH on Opening Day. LaRue had a hot bat throughout the fall but went 3-for-21 this season. Bragga doubled-down on LaRue’s ability. “I will go to my grave some day saying this kid is going to hit at an elite level,” the coach said about the young hitter. Bragga then recalled the 1-for-9 start of his college career.

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Rice Baseball 2020: Gleanings from one quarter season

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Rice baseball is still working to come to terms with a disheartening 2020 season. What hope can be gathered from the Owls’ 2-14 start?

Baseball is, by its very nature, a forgiving sport. Hitters who manage one hit in three trips to the plate are lauded. Pitchers need only get through two-thirds of a game with three runs or fewer to be awarded a “quality start”. All of the stats and measures are accrued over months. That allows for outliers and streaks (both good and bad) to be accounted for. For better or worse, sample sizes are large. Not for Rice baseball in 2020.

The Owls’ season ended with a discouraging 2-14 record. Four weeks after a Valentine’s Day battle with in-state power Texas, Rice has one series win to show for their efforts and many excruciating losses. Rice led second-ranked Texas Tech by four runs twice in their final weekend, but found a way to lose both games. They were bludgeoned at home by Louisiana and swept on the road by UC Irvine.

Outside of a two-of-three series win over Missouri State, there wasn’t much positive in the box scores for Rice in their abbreviated 2020 campaign.

The finality of that gut-wrenching resume is what bothers Rice baseball head coach Matt Bragga the most. “It isn’t how you start, it’s how you finish,” said the second-year skipper. “Now obviously we want to start hot finish hot. That’s what we’re working towards. But right now all we have is a start. We didn’t get the opportunity to finish.”

If Rice proved anything in their first year under Bragga, it was that ability to finish. Some of the Owls’ best baseball transpired in the second half of the season. From March 29th on, Rice swept Old Dominion, Middle Tennessee and Louisiana Tech. They also took two of three from Southern Miss.

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In May they clinched the Silver Glove and won two games in the Conference USA Tournament. The same team that committed eight errors in a February game against Arizona left Biloxi with the best fielding percentage of any team in the conference tournament.

Last season provides no prescriptive effect as to how the 2020 campaign would have gone. But robbing this team of the opportunity to test their resiliency — although the right decision, considering the circumstances — still stings. “This was a club that had a chance to finish pretty darn strong,” remarked Bragga. Unfortunately, we’ll never know for sure.

A brutal schedule, combined with injuries to Roel Garcia, Dalton Wood and Jack Conlon, pushed the already thin pitching staff beyond their capabilities. Good starts were spoiled by an overmatched bullpen. Excellent outings on the mound were wasted by a lineup that could not get the clutch hit, no matter how hard they tried. In all actuality, this was as close to the worst-scenario for the 2020 Rice baseball season as could have been possibly imagined.

Rice was able to show tangible year-over-year improvement with their gloves. Rice was ninth in C-USA with a .965 fielding percentage last season. They improved to sixth this year, fielding at a .969 clip, a hair under Bragga’s self-imposed goal of .970. A 5-error outing against Louisiana was the only truly awful defensive game they played in their 16 contests.

The hitting and the pitching objectively got worse. Injuries and the losses of Matt Canterino and Evan Kravetz hurt the Owls significantly on the mound. The bats weren’t nearly consistent enough.

Bragga hopes to turn that negative into a positive when that small sample size is expanded in 2021. “This team was way better than 2-14,” he said knowingly.

He could be onto something. Simple regression to the mean, a few more bounces in the Owls’ favor in their next 16 games could paint a very different picture. That’s especially true if Rice retains and rejuvenates their injured pitchers and adds what Bragga believes could be the most talented signing class he’s ever constructed.

“As much as it’s overused, it is a process,” Bragga admitted. If we learned anything in 2020, the Owls are closer to square one than the finished product. That’s okay, but it also means there’s plenty more work to do.

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