Matt Spalding St. Xavier 2011 commits to Western Kentucky University. Spalding was one of the first freshmen in almost 15 years to letter in varsity baseball at St. X. He was selected as one of several 7th region sophomores last year to attend the inaugural KY Sophomore Showcase. He was Academic All-State and inducted into the National Honor Society.

 

 

 

Spalding had a strong summer season with the Kentucky Baseball Club. The fall proved to be even better with an excellent showing at the Perfect Game Southeast Underclass Showcase. He also helped the underclass KBC team to tie for the lead in their pool in the WWBA Underclass Championships in Ft. Myers, FL, this past October. Spalding was on the mound helping KBC to a win over the Florida Diamond Pros with a 90 mph fastball. He is currently ranked 305th nationally in the class of 2011 by Perfect Game.

 

 

 

Western Kentucky University was ranked #23 last year in the final Top 25 Poll according to College Baseball and has recorded back-to-back NCAA Regional Tournament appearances. WKU won 40 baseball games last year and earned a share of the Sun Belt Conference Regular Season Championship. Western Kentucky University is located in Bowling Green, KY, and is the northern most college in the Sun Belt Conference. The Sun Belt Conference has a strong RPI ranking--ahead of the Big East and Big Ten. WKU had 6 players drafted in the MLB draft last year with Wade Gaynor leading the way in the third round. WKU has put $2.2 million dollars of enhancements in their field since 2002. A new $1 million dollar baseball clubhouse and office facility is under construction and should be completed by the start of this coming season.

Congrats Matt! Our team has a few loses to this young man when he played for the Louisville Lightning.

Great job, Matt. Continue love the game, learn, and work hard.

Where did WKU see Matt play, and will they use him both as a pitcher and outfielder?

Where did WKU see Matt play, and will they use him both as a pitcher and outfielder?

 

WKU saw Matt several times. He attended their fall camp this year and I believe he may have attended a camp in 08 as well. They saw him over the summer playing for KBC at tournament hosted by the Dirtbags at WKU. I think they saw him playing for KBC in Ft. Meyers this fall also. It is my understanding he will be dual player--OF and P.

Dude's got a hose for an arm. Congrats to him!

WKU saw Matt several times. He attended their fall camp this year and I believe he may have attended a camp in 08 as well. They saw him over the summer playing for KBC at tournament hosted by the Dirtbags at WKU. I think they saw him playing for KBC in Ft. Meyers this fall also. It is my understanding he will be dual player--OF and P.

 

I also heard that WKU did see Matt play a couple of high school games. Too, it is surprising of how small the "baseball world" can be and who sees who play. Interestingly, WKU last year had wins over the SEC champ Ole Miss, U of K, and 2 wins over Missouri.

Do larger schools like WKU let kids play postions and pitch at that level. I understand the kid has a cannon for a arm. Will probably be a mid to high draft pick when he is ready.

Playing 2 positions at a high level is rare. Rick Ankiel, the former pitcher and now outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, is one of the few ever that has done so in the Major Leagues. In Ankiel’s case, it was his lack of success as a pitcher that prompted him to try to play another position. Interestingly In Three Nights in August, by Buzz Bissenger (who also wrote Friday Night Lights), I believe that La Russa shares that Ankiel was a very promising pitcher that got thrown into a key playoff game with an inexperienced catcher. Ankiel had his worst outing of his professional career and seemed to lose confidence as a pitcher after that.

 

I also know of a few players for high level Division I programs that have been able to pitch and play a position. It is rare, but has been done. We have friends that have a son at Florida State that is doing this. Zach Cox pitched some this past freshman year at Arkansas. Brad Corley, who played college ball at Mississippi State pitched some there. He seemed to do so early, than not as much his sophomore and junior year.

 

Coach Finwood at WKU does have experience using two-way players. Sometimes this is important in the success of doing it. Knowing how and when to use a player can make a difference.

Congrats Matt! Our team has a few loses to this young man when he played for the Louisville Lightning.

 

Congrats to Matt. He racked up quite a few wins for the Lightning. He is having to face alot of his former Lightning teammates. I wish he would have played HS ball with the rest of them. Again congrats. BTW Coachg, what team did you coach?

Matt threw for the Kentucky Baseball Club the past two weekends. Last weekend in Indianapolis, he hit 96mph once. This news brought out over 450 scouts to see him pitch this past Thursday night in Jupiter Florida where he worked 91-93 and hit 94 a few times. After this recent showing, WKU will be lucky to have him show up next fall. There's a good possibility that he will be a top 5 rounder in next year's MLB amateur draft.

Were you there in Jupiter Engineer? 450 scouts seems a little far fetched to me.

How big is Spalding?

I was in the crowd....I do some scouting myself as a bird dog. I actually had a hard time seeing the field because there were so many people there and I got to the game late. There are only about 8 games on Thursday night at the Jupiter event, and scouts only have about 3 games to choose from as opposed to 15 or 20 during the day. So, there were a LOT of guys there. There were several arms throwing in the same game for the Yankees scout team from Texas who were touted to be mid to upper 90's as well, so that game was packed....I would say 350-400 people were in attendance, though it's hard to estimate exactly. Basically every college team you could think of was represented there along with all the MLB teams. Spalding is around 6 feet to 6 feet 1 inch.

Spalding is about 5'10". He is a great athlete