Phuture Phillies has been contacted by the Lakewood Blueclaws Media/Public Relations Manager Greg Giombarrese, for the purpose of doing a Question and Answer session with Lakewood 3B Travis Mattair, and the questions will come from you ,the reader. Feel free to post your questions for Travis in the comment section of this post before 12:00 p.m. tomorrow. When a question is posted, please use a first name and a hometown. If these requirements are not fulfilled, the question will not be asked. Your answers to the questions submitted will be posted both here, and the Lakewood Blue Claws blog sometime later this week. By way of brief background, Mattair as many of you know, is a 6’5, 20 year old 3B for the Blueclaws, playing his second season in Lakewood after being drafted in the 2nd round of the 2007 draft, out of Southridge High School in Washington. He is hitting .250/.362/.340 on the year with 2 HR 23 RBI and 7 SB.
22 thoughts on “Travis Mattair Q&A”
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Phuture Phillies 
I would like to ask him what he think are his biggest challenges in improving his batting average and power numbers. Is he having a difficult time in pitch recognition or is he just missing the good fastballs? Does he feel as if he’s improving?
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Ron in obviously Allentown
I’d like him to talk about the instruction and hitting coaching he has received since joining the Phillies organization. Did they identify things he needed to improve when he signed and first appeared at GCL and FIL? What were these improvement areas and what has he been asked to do to improve? Has he found the hitting instruction to be consistent between GCL, FIL, and Lakewood? Does the organization stress working the count and drawing walks or is the message to be aggressive? How much does he practice bunting during the season?
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Ron in Allentown
I’d also like to ask him how it impacts him emotionally and how he approaches the game to repeat a level. Also, did the organization explain why they wanted him to repeat?
I forgot to include in my first post — would you ask him how the roving instructors interact with him and how frequently? What are they trying to teach him or get him to do differently and is this approach consistent with what the manager and coaches on his team are asking him to do?
Also, I like Murray’s questions, but he didn’t give a hometown. Can I adopt the questions so they will get asked?
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phuture phillies / gregg, what a great feature! Looking forward to it. Thanks to Travis for agreeing to do it.
Tom, Boston, MA
1) Being in Lakewood, is there much interaction with the big league team? Have you met any current Phillies? Do you have a favorite Phillie (current or all-time)?
2) Can you give us a scouting report on yourself?
3) Whom do you like to model your game after?
4) Which of your teammates have you been most impressed by? Why? Has there been any one teammate who’s helped you the most?
5) How hard was the transition from living at home to playing baseball professionally? Are you adjusted to it now, or is it an ongoing process?
6) Do you read what scouts and websites write about you?
I have a lot more, but I think that’s enough for now.
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Chuck in Easton:
What does he think led to the explosion in walks he had early this season? Was it a conscious effort to be more selective? and why does he think he regressed in May?
What were the keys to his very young Lakewood team winning the first-half championship?
A realted question to some above:
What is he specifically working on to become a better hitter?
His strikezone judgment seems much better versus lefties than versus righties–is he having trouble with good curves and sliders?
Does he change his approach with 2 strikes?
Does he consider himself a gap-to-gap hitter or a pull hitter?
Since posting his first month as a professional with an OPS over .800 this June, does he think he’s on the verge of making a significant improvement as a hitter?
I also like Murray’s questions…
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What does Travis feel as his biggest improvement or where does he feel progress is being made from last year to this year? What area of his game does he feel he needs to work on most?
What is the biggest adjustment being at Lakewood? What can you say about the organization so far?
Who was his idol growing up? What team did he cheer for?
Thomas from Winnipeg. Manitoba, Canada
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Steve-Chester Springs Pa.-
Most professional athletes have good hand-eye coordination. In your opinion which is more important; good hands or good eyesight, especially as it relates to hitting?
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What is your game plan for each at bat? Does it change based on pitcher and game situation?
How do you work to improve your skills during the season & the off-season?
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My question is what drills do the Phils hitting instructors at his level/rookie level before that emphasize to work on keeping the hitters swings’ short during the transition from metal to wood?
Also, do they implement “tracking” drills to work on pitch recognition? Have these contributed to his great walk rate? If not, what is his secret?
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Ummm, I got nothing to bring to the table. All of the questions that I would’ve asked have already been asked, but I think this interview will be awesome, and I hope there are opportunities for more.
Although it might be interesting to see if he has worked with Mike Schmidt at all, and if he hasn’t, how does he feel about the potential opportunity to work with one of The Best Ever.
– Jeff (Philadelphia)
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Henry from Havertown:
My questions are as follows:
1. What steps do you feel you need to take to get “to the next level” of your development? How do you feel you are progressing in this regard?
2. What training do you intend to do in the off-season to continue to improve? Will it be any different than what you did in the last offseason?
3. Do you have any advice to give to youngsters who wish to pursue a career in professional baseball? Anything you might do differently up to this point if you had it to do over again?
4. If you weren’t a baseball player, what would you want to do with your life?
Thank you again for your time and best of luck.
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JD, Avon, CT
What were your goals coming into the season?
Do you feel you’re on track to achieve them?
What are some of your longer term goals? Other than playing 3B in CBP and making $5M by the time you’re 22? ps that was my goal… didn’t quite make it.
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“1) What drills do the Phils hitting instructors at his level/rookie level before that emphasize to work on keeping the hitters swings’ short during the transition from metal to wood?
2) Do they implement “tracking” drills with marked balls to work on pitch recognition? Have these contributed to his great walk rate? If not, what is his secret?”
Forgot, AB from Connecticut would be the name for these questions
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mike south philly comeing out of high school, everything I read about you was about your bat, why in your opinion has it been slower than project to hit especially for power.
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Great questions so far, I have nothing to add right now but kudos to the people making this happen. They make this a great website.
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Joe in Traverse City, Michigan:
As a fellow 20-year-old, I was wondering what a typical day is like for you as a minor league ballplayer? Do you stay with host families or in hotels more? Are there a lot of strict “lifestyle” rules like curfews and what you can do in your free time?
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Ron from Durham
1. What pitch gives you the most trouble?
2. To get to the next level as a hitter, which of these do you have to get better at: a) physical ability, b) swing mechanics, or c) at-bat factors such as pitch recognition
3. What is you mental outlook these days?
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Greg in Albany, NY
Were you disappointed in being assigned back to Lakewood to start the year?
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Dan from Tel Aviv (Israel)
Regarding your professional career to this point, would you say that you’ve met expectations, exceeded expectations, or dissapointed? You may answer this from your own perspective or from what you gauge to be the organization’s perspective.
Given your performance to date, would you consider it likely that you will be a major leaguer at some point in the future? If so, do you believe it likely that you will be a starter on major league team at some point?
Just a note: these are not meant to be negative questions nor are they meant to “set-up” the player.
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Travis, what in your approach to hitting do you believe needs to improve most to help you advance through the ranks of the organization?
Also, what other 3rd baseman would you say that you model aspects of your game after?
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Tom from Rockaway, NJ
How does playing on the east coast differ from playing on the northern west coast?
Does the change in weather help your training/ development?
Or did indoor drills in Washington compensate enough?
The Phillies seam to like high school prospects from Washington so I wanted to know how much of a change developmentally it might be for you.
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Thanks to Travis for doing this. All excellent questions above, and I’m probably repeating right now.
1. What did he change in his approach to walk so many times early in the year? How have opposing pitchers adjusted to him?
2. How is the organization working with him to unlock his obvious power potential?
Kevin from Boston, MA
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