Ex-Oriole Matthews Among AL's Top Hitters

[ThomasTomasz]

Gary Matthews Jr. took quite a journey to becoming the Rangers' leadoff hitter and starting center fielder.

The son of Sarge finally is flourishing in Texas, settled with a team for the first time in his eight major league seasons.

"Any player needs that. It's just a matter of finding the right opportunity and the right place," the 32-year-old Matthews said. "To be here in a situation and have the kind of year that I'm having, and winning games ... it just can't get any better right now."

Matthews has a career-best .332 average, ranking fourth in the American League, with eight home runs and 40 RBIs. He also has 25 doubles, matching his 2005 total and fourth in the AL.

There have also been plenty of defensive highlights, such as a leaping catch to rob a likely home run against Arizona--the kind of hustle plays reminiscent of his father, who was known as Sarge during 16 seasons.

The younger Matthews hit a long homer later in the same inning when he made that particular catch.

Still, the switch-hitting Matthews has been overlooked by fans voting for the All-Star starters. He didn't even crack the top 15 AL outfielders in the latest results, despite impressive numbers and the Rangers (40-36) being only 1 1/2 games behind AL West-leading Oakland.

"He's having an unbelievable year," two-time All-Star shortstop Michael Young said. "He's been the one guy that's probably been the most important to our team that nobody's really talking about."

Matthews, who signed a $2.39 million, one-year contract to avoid salary arbitration, started this season on the disabled list after missing most of spring training because of a freak injury--he strained a rib cage muscle trying to keep himself from sneezing while driving his car.

"Everybody is going to probably want to skip spring training next year and follow Gary's lead," manager Buck Showalter said. "We all know spring training's too long, but he took it to another degree."

Before signing a minor league deal with the Rangers in April 2004, Matthews had been released that spring by Atlanta--the team for which his father was an All-Star in 1979.

The younger Matthews had played for five different teams (Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, New York Mets and San Diego) the previous three seasons.

Even after signing with Texas, Little Sarge had to spend two months in the minors and didn't become a regular for the Rangers until after the All-Star break and then hit .275, his best for a single season.

"There were times when I wasn't too happy, but I'm just really confident in my abilities and was confident that it could work out here," Matthews said. "Sometimes you just have to have some patience, and things will work out."

Matthews was the opening day starter in 2005, and started a team-high 95 games in center field. While missing three weeks with a strained hamstring, he set career highs with 17 homers and 55 RBIs in 131 games (most hitting in the bottom third of the order while David Dellucci or Alfonso Soriano, both now gone, were in the leadoff spot).

Going into a third season with the same team for the first time, Matthews made several offseason trips to Arlington to work with hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo "in the cage for two or three days at a time."

Jaramillo made some adjustments in Matthews' stance, and they talked about the mental approach to hitting. The changes have obviously worked.

When he was activated April 12, Matthews took over the leadoff spot and contributed in his first game with a bases-loaded triple. He was the Rangers' player of the month in May after hitting .333 with 11 doubles, and is hitting .373 (37-of-99) this month, even after a 2-for-13 weekend with a homer in Colorado.

"He obviously has a great pedigree growing up in the game," Showalter said. "Gary's at a stage in his life that he wants to make a mark in this game. He's in a perfect place for that."

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/b...ports-baseball

[ThomasTomasz]

You can't really predict if a guy like Matthews is going to be a late bloomer or not. Its a combination of work ethic, talent, and/or the coaching staff. To me, I think its his work ethic and the coaches. Matthews has some talent, and his major asset is speed. But, he puts in lots of work day in and day out, and is something I liked about him. I would really like our outfield if we had Matthews, Patterson, and Gibbons starting this season, although I like Markakis getting some experience.

[Molina00]

I have to say I am very glad you guys, and the other 4 teams that have had Matthews, didn't keep him. I seriously doubt the Rangers could be in contention right now if it wasn't for Matthews, and I don't think anybody would have predicted he would be hotter than Teixeira right now.

[Fishercat]

Seriously, who the hell thought Gary Matthews would finally find his stroke. It's absolute lunacy, and no team was wrong in getting rid of him. Nice pickup by Daniels if he saw something. Kudos to the hitting coach too.

[ThomasTomasz]

In his first season with the O's, he hit .276, with something like 8 homers. At that time, and Terry Crowley was also his hitting coach. Crowley is widely regarded as one of the best hitting coaches around, and I'm surprised he didn't help Matthews build off that season. It just goes to show you how much work you need to put in (in any sport) to be a successful ballplayer.