Mack Ade – An Interview With SP Steven Matz

pic by Allen Greene
 

 I was really looking forward to this one.

Steven was a local boy out of Melville High School that was the Mets first pick (second round – 72^nd overall) in the 2009 draft. Things just never went right from the beginning. He eventually had Tommy John Surgery and did start last year where he posted 6-G, 2-1, 1.55, 29.0-IP, 34-K (17-BB) for a very bad Kingsport team. It was at that point that the arm tightened up again and flags went up. Matz was shut down, never to be seen again that season.

I had talked to him on the phone in the off-season and he told me that everything was back on course, but they all say that, don’t they? The only way we would find out what shape he was in was to see him pitch and, low and behold, guess who shows up at the press luncheon in Savannah?

This was a good time to talk to Steven. He’s got three outings in the books and stats out at: 1-0, 1.29, 14.0-IP, 18-K, 4-B. He was quite impressed and very proud of the fact that he has reduced his BB/9 from 5.28 in 2012 to a current 2.57. He smiled (and none of these kids smile very easily… I think they are instructed to stay this detached) broadly and proudly when I brought this up. I told him that catcher Jeff Glenn had told me that he was particularly impressed with his zone pounding and was this a direct result of control of his fastball. “Yes,” said Matz. “It’s all command.”

I asked him the same first question I ask all the bonus boys… what was the first thing he bought when he cashed the bonus check. It was a truck, which, by the way, seems to be the answer 75% of the time.

Matz confirmed he’s currently throwing a two-seam, a four-seam, a change-up, and what he calls a ‘slurve’. He had played around with a slider for a season, but has now incorporated it into his previous “primary secondary’ pitch, his curve. He also confirmed that Coach Frank Viola currently has him throwing about 75% fastballs, but that might be changing as the season gets longer and hotter.

A lot of readers wanted to know what he did in the off-season to prevent his problems from surfacing again. All those questions led to one answer, an off-season working out with Pedro Beato, Cam Maron, and Zack Dotson at the Professional Athletic Performance Center, in Garden City, New York (http://www.professionalperformance.net/). Matz confirmed he was placed on a team-approved series of exercises and strength- growing measures all designed to add muscle to an arm that needs to support past injuries.

I asked him what he was currently working on. “My breaking pitch”, said Matz. “And tempo.”

We reminisced about his signing day when he had that great picture taken with his parents at Shea Stadium, what it would be like to someday pitch in Queens (“a lifelong dream”), the fact that he missed pitching in Brooklyn (“yeah, a bummer”), and which Mets team was his favorite (“the one that went to the Subway Series’, though it would have been nice if we won”).

In closing, no one has ever questioned Matz’ talent. This kid can haul back and pound the zone. Sadly, shit happens and pitchers get injured  and all the Mets, and Matz, can do here is do everything they can to prevent a recurrence of these injuries.

Pitchers, even talented ones, only get so many chances. Matz is one of those special kids that deserves our attention.