Red Sox 4th round pick: CF Tate Matheny, Missouri St.

[The Gray Eagle]

Tate Matheny, CF Missouri State
(Son of Cardinals manager and former catcher Mike Matheny)
6'0, 185 
Bats R, throws R
4th round pick, 111th overall.
 
College Bio
 
Writeup by Jeff Zimmerman on Hardball Times:
 


"I can understand taking some heat for this ranking, but I just haven’t seen him perform and don’t see where the growth can come from. I feel he is getting too much love because his dad is Mike Matheny. Reading reports on him, they say they like his bat, but say his speed is a hindrance. I think they have it backwards. In the above video, he is timed at 4.0 secs to first (70 speed). In the Missouri Value tournament, I timed him at 4.08 to first. He used the speed to lead the team with 12 steals. When it does come to hitting, he seems to find a way to find a way on base. He was hit by a pitch 17 times. He does seem to have good enough bat speed to make contact, but the contact is just weak. With his speed, he should be able to leg out a few singles and turn singles into doubles. I just don’t see the love for him and I hope he proves me wrong."
Video on MLB.com. The page notes "Tate Matheny controls the strike zone, uses the opposite field well and has the bat speed and strength to have average pop."
 

 

[smokin joe wood]

I produced the MVC tournament and the Springfield regional so I saw Matheny about 7 times live in the last 2-3 weeks. His raw tools certainly don't jump off the page but he's a grinder and seems to get better swings the 2nd/3rd time against starters. He got pitched inside a lot in the conference tournament and he got hit by a ton of pitches this year, which leads me to believe he got pitched in most of the season. He plays a really shallow (think Andruw Jones) centerfield and gets good jumps/reads from the little I saw. 
 
Totally unrelated to anything: he has white eyelashes on one of his eyes.