An Interview with OF Tanner Mathis

The first thing you'll notice about Tanner Mathis if you meet him off the field is his Louisiana accent and his easygoing manner. But don't let that fool you. Despite his love for hunting and Ole Miss, he isn't just another good old boy. If you look beyond his outgoing personality and loquaciousness, you'll find someone who has obviously thought long and hard about what it will take to succeed and has worked diligently to make that a reality.

Mathis is currently working up the road in Cypress during the off-season. The job, working for a construction and remodeling company owned by his cousin, affords him the opportunity to hunt on the weekends and is helping to fund a couple of special off-season hunting trips. But he still finds the time to get his work in and also found the time to talk with me last week about his first professional season. Here is what we discussed, edited for brevity (believe it or not) and clarity ~

Tanner Mathis - September 2013

Photo by Jayne Hansen

JH: You were originally drafted by the Astros in 2012, but didn't sign, instead choosing to go back to Ole Miss for your senior year. This past summer, you signed with Houston as a non-drafted free agent. Can you tell me a little about that process? Any regrets?

TM: The process was pretty hectic. I was drafted late in the draft, the 27th round. I only had 30 hours left at school, two semesters. I was weighing the option of playing pro ball and going back and getting that degree later, or graduating and then playing pro ball the next year. A lot of people told me that it's hard [to go back later]. I had people for each side pulling. Some people wanted me to sign. Some people wanted me to go back to school. I just kind of shut everybody off and [I decided] I wanted to go back to school because it was best for me in the long run. Getting that degree, having that piece of paper whenever my career is over, whether I'm 25 or 40, I won't have to go back to school and finish a year. I don't regret it at all. I had a great year. Obviously, your senior year of college is always a special time of your life and I cherish every moment of it.

JH: What is your degree?

TM: I've got a criminal justice degree with Homeland Security emphasis and a minor in Parks and Recreation. Starting off, I was going into a Game Warden kind of deal, but around my junior year, I'd taken a couple of law classes and fell in love with the law aspect so I'm planning on going back to law school when baseball is finished. That's my goal. I don't know if it will happen or not. With a law degree, I could be a sports agent down the road.

JH: You were one of a handful of players invited by the Astros to spend time in the Dominican Republic after the season ended. Can you tell me a little about that?

TM: That was awesome. We went down there for 10 days. It was part of the Dominican League instructs. You know they have the [instructional] league in Florida for three weeks in October? This was kind of like the Florida instructs. "We want to get you some extra work. Do you want to go to the Dominican?" Of course! We went down there for two weeks. We played ball. We practiced stuff every day. In the morning we worked out, lifted weights. Then five or six times, we'd leave our complex to tour the country. We put on a camp one day. We rode around. We went out to the beach. We went to a couple different towns and cities and visited the Astros complex while I was there. We just had a lot of fun interacting with the Latin guys. Google Translate is amazing, what you can do on Google Translate talking to the guys. We used that a lot.

JH: So, you had a chance to bond with some of the Latin players?

TM: Being in Greeneville, there were 16 or 17 Latin guys on that roster, and half of our Greeneville team was at the complex [in the Dominican] or I saw them throughout the trip. So it was cool to see the guy and how he lived. It was kind of like, along with the instructs and baseball part, [it] was a cultural [experience]. They come to our country and they're lost. The don't speak English. They might not like the food, whatever. So it was kind of like the opposite ... send the American guys over there to see what the Latin guys deal with when they come to our country. It was cool. You go down there. You don't speak Spanish. You might not like some of the food. It's just a culture shock. And I think we did a great job in adapting to it, getting along with the guys.

JH: In looking at your splits at Greeneville this season, I noticed that you actually hit better against lefties (.304 BA) than you did against right-handed pitchers (.268 BA). Do you usually hit that well against lefties? [Note: Mathis is a left-handed hitter.]

TM: My freshman year of college I was platooned with another outfielder and I would only play against right-handed pitchers. So [I didn't] see a lefty all that year just about. Then I went to summer ball my first summer and I [wanted] to face as many lefties as possible. [I sat down with the summer ball coach] and said I might not do well against them at first, but I need to see as many as possible. Then, as the season went on, I was able to face lefties. Not that I couldn't hit them, but my college coach, he really liked having the match-ups. I don't blame him. Most of the stats, it all pays off. But I really set my goal to play every day as a sophomore in college and I needed to face lefties. I actually hit better in my sophomore and junior years in college ball against left-handed pitchers than right-handed pitchers so I guess it's kind of normal. I don't know. It's just one of those things I don't even think about it anymore.

JH: The other thing I noticed is that you drew a lot of walks (44 in 60 games) and didn't strike out much (14 times). Were you that disciplined a hitter in college?

TM: My sophomore year of college, I struck out 10 times and I was one of the top 10 hardest guys to strike out in the country. I had 15 walks and 10 strikeouts as a leadoff hitter that year and they [wanted me] to walk more. Then my junior year, I had around 40 walks [and he continued to draw more walks in his senior year.] It's just, being a lead off hitter, you have to get on base. You can't hit .400. It's just not going to work. No one does that so you have to add another element. Pitch recognition was something I worked on a lot with my college coaches, walking, taking a strike, taking two strikes sometimes, working the count and getting on first base so we could make the offense go. And I just brought that over to pro ball. Actually in Greeneville, they told me to lead off the game, every game, the first at-bat of the game, they told me to take until I had two strikes because I could still hit with two strikes and I wasn't going to chase very many pitches. And it worked. I think I ended up setting a franchise record there and it just goes back to [Cesar] Cedeno and [Josh] Bonifay working with me in the cages about it. Also, my college coaches helping me along the way.

JH: What was the biggest surprise for you in your first season of pro ball?

TM: All those big time arms. All the velocity. You'd see between 88 and 102 any given day. We had [Jandel] Gustave down there on our team throwing 100 to 102. And the Mets had a couple of guys throwing around 100. [Even at the best schools], you might get 95 to 97, but that's only one day. Where in pro ball, you might get it three or four days in a row and you just have to deal with it.

JH: What memory will you take with you from the season?

TM: Clinching a playoff spot was pretty special, especially because [it was] Bonifay's first year as a manager. And we had the winning streak, then a losing streak, then another winning streak. Then finally we clinched like the day before the season was over. He gave me an MVP trophy. I thought that was really neat. And just your first year in general ... you never forget your first anything. Being part of such a special group of guys in a special organization in Greeneville is something I'll never forget, the whole thing.

JH: You got a late season call up to Lancaster after the Greeneville season ended, but you never got into a game. What were you able to take away from the experience?

TM: One thing I saw and noticed is that they know exactly what it takes to get ready for a game, whether it's a playoff game, season-on-the-line Game 5 or just another game. They don't do anything different. They were really loose, really relaxed in the clubhouse. And they came out and they brought it. They were intense. They played hard. That's just something that, as you get older and you play more and more games, you realize what you have to do to get ready for each game. I think seeing that helped me a lot.

JH: What do you feel like you accomplished in your first season and what are you still working on?

TM: I'm working on a lot of things. I'm working on getting faster, stronger, bigger. I need to be able to steal more bases, still need to walk more, hit for more power, play better defense, every aspect of the game. It's just non-stop. It's always evolving.

What have I accomplished? I had a good year. I thought I had an average year for myself, [but] I hold myself to a high standard. Personally, it was my on-base percentage ... I was surprised that it was so high. That's why I kept playing. Because I brought it every day and I was rewarded by Bonifay and them to let me keep playing [in Lancaster after the Greeneville season was done].

JH: How would you characterize yourself defensively?

TM: I would say I'm an above average outfielder, just a tick above average with an average arm. I can run down some balls and I would say I play pretty smart out there. I made a couple good throws this year, throwing guys out at second on balls down the left field line. Just a smart player, I guess.

JH: What Astros pitcher that you've seen would you least like to face in the batter's box?

TM: Oh man. I have no idea. A lot of them. Gustave throws real hard. The lefty that throws real hard, [Reymin] Guduan, I probably wouldn't like facing him very much. And Brady Rodgers ... I saw him pitch in Lancaster. He and Travis Ballew -- their offspeed's real good. Probably those four guys and there's a couple other ones that I probably wouldn't enjoy facing either.

JH: Who on the team made you laugh?

TM: A lot of the Latin guys in Greeneville made me laugh, just how they acted. Wallace Gonzalez and I hung out a lot. He made me laugh. But I'd have to go with Brett Phillips. Brett Phillips' laugh made me laugh more than I've ever laughed before. That laugh is awesome. I have it recorded on my phone and I watch it all the time. [Note from Jayne: Having heard the infamous Brett Phillips laugh, I couldn't agree more!]

JH: Was there a player that you liked to just sit back and watch play?

TM: A lot of the guys in High A. I think [Andrew] Aplin was a really good person to fit my game after. He played really hard. And [M.P.] Cokinos was a really good hitter. [Chris] Epps was a good left-handed power guy. A bunch of those guys on that team really played hard. Aplin would run through a wall to catch a ball. He's not afraid of anything and he's going to swing the bat. And, of course, watching Delino [DeShields] run is always good too.

JH: You've more or less already answered this, but what would you do if you couldn't play baseball?

TM: If I don't make it to the big leagues, I'd probably go back to school and get my law degree and either become a lawyer or an agent. Or if that doesn't work out, just probably become a coach and work my way up from there.

JH: Can you tell me something about yourself that most people don't know and might be surprised to hear?

TM: I moved six weeks before high school started my freshman year to go to Barbe High School [in Lake Charles], a big baseball powerhouse. It was my best shot at getting a scholarship and eventually playing pro ball down the road. So we move over there 20 or 30 minutes south of where we used to live. Then Hurricane Rita comes through. Nobody ever remembers Hurricane Rita. It comes through just a little west of Lake Charles. We were on the bad side of the storm. And it blew off almost all the shingles on our house. With all that rain and wind, about half our house [had the ceilings cave in]. So, my whole freshman year I didn't live in Lake Charles. I lived back in my old house [with my grandfather]. It was really hard on everybody in my family because we were just in our new house and just moved and, boom, we were back out of it. Just having the stress of basically having to rebuild the house from the inside out, it was just a pain to have to go through that. And I'm thankful for my grandfather [for] bringing me to school every day.

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I've already mentioned the easygoing Louisiana cadence that is the first thing one notices about Tanner off the field. The first thing one notices about Tanner on the field, though, is his very distinctive ritual when he comes up to bat.




He's definitely a fun player to watch and a fun player to talk with. I look forward to seeing him in action again next season.

Thank you for your time, Tanner, and the best of luck in the 2014 season.