23 years old 35 at bats Swinging at good pitches and just missing them is the last thing I'd be worried about, especially in this sample size - nobody makes it to the MLB level if they aren't able to hit good pitches. They'd have washed out long ago. It should be assumed anyone at this level can manage that part. The key to development is whether players can swing at the right pitches and/or hit less-than-ideal pitches.
A lot of people including myself were down on Matthews after the first few weeks of the season where he didn’t look like a big leaguer. And he still has some major swing and miss in his game that I don’t think is going to get fixed soon. But damn I’ve said it since I saw his first minor league home run, he has incredibly tools. I described it as quick hands, don’t necessarily know how to describe it but the type you know will make good line drive contact when it connects. Great raw athleticism on the field as well, not super polished. Ultimately I think he’s a guy that if he hits below .200 he won’t make it, .220 makes him still valuable at the bottom of your line up, and .250 makes him a borderline star.
We’re always skeptical and impatient as fans, most forget how extremely difficult the game is at this level. He’s athletic as hell and my lord it’s nice having faster young guys back on this team. I’m not sure how much you’ve heard him speak about coming up but he’s talked in specifics about getting his hands in, being more compact, just driving the ball where the pitch is. Refreshing to hear him discuss specifics about adjusting to ML pitching, really bright kid that seems to understand the process and what’s going to make him stick up here the quickest. Then you have his glove, I think we may have our CFer.
His skill set is one that will likely always leave him as a very streaky player His key will be stopping the bad streaks at a week to a week and a half and not letting them extend to a month or more
He's the type of guy that learns from experience. He has started off slow in every level of baseball and then it just clicks for him. Hopefully the majors is the same. He has to see the pitches regularly to figure it out.
