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The Rode Show: Brendan Rodgers Goes Deep

March 20, 2015

By Nathan Rode
National Supervisor

Coming into this trip to Florida, I was hopeful of two things—to see SS Brendan Rodgers (Lake Mary HS, FL) show off his power and avoid any poor weather. However, you have to take the good with the bad. It took five days, but rain cut our Thursday short. Fortunately, Rodgers did what we had been waiting for all week.

Against Tampa Prep, Rodgers laced a single up the middle in his first at-bat before popping and grounding out weakly in his next two. He has looked a little anxious at times this week and was caught out on his front foot in this game. In his fourth at-bat, he stayed back and showed off his good, short and quick swing, launching a ball to left-center field for a home run. It was his fifth of the season.

Through the three games we’ve seen this week, Rodgers is 4-for-12 with a home run and double. He hasn’t been dominant, but he has only swung and missed once, routinely hitting the ball hard. His hands are quick, generating excellent bat speed and he stays short to the ball.

After seeing Lake Mary win, we were off to Leesburg, FL, to see RHP Brady Singer (Eustis HS, FL). Singer has a tall, lean frame at 6-foot-5, 180 pounds with plenty of room to fill out and add strength down the road. The first thing that jumped out about the Florida recruit was while he was loosening up to throw his pregame session in the bullpen. Swinging his arms in front and behind himself, Singer showed excellent range of motion, nearly clapping his hands behind his back, a testament to his flexibility. That shows up on the mound as he has a very loose, easy and up-tempo delivery. He comes from a low slot, which creates very good life on his fastball, running to his arm-side. He sat 90-92 mph in the first inning and showed his full arsenal. He has two breaking balls, both of which flash sharpness. He also has feel for a changeup, though is doing high school hitters a favor by throwing it. He gave up one hit in the first inning and was about to warm up for the second when umpires pulled the players off the field because of rain. It was a downpour and the game was eventually called, as the conditions were just too wet to continue.

Thursday was our last day in the Orlando area and we’ll head to St. Petersburg Friday to catch another game from Team Canada’s Junior National Team. We were hoping to see Nic Hamilton (Lockport HS, NY) with the Great Lakes Canadians, but he was hurt this week and will miss Friday’s game. The evening sees us heading to Venice HS, FL, to see the Indians take on North Florida Christian HS, which will send 2016 Cole Ragans to the hill. And finally on Saturday, we’ll follow North Florida Christian to Tampa Jesuit HS to see RHP Cole Sands before heading back to North Carolina for the 2015 National High School Invitational.

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