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College  | Story  | 2/12/2015

Matuella back on top

Nick Kappel     
Photo: Duke Photography

2015 Perfect Game College Baseball Preview Index


Duke University is one of the most prestigious colleges in the country, claiming former President Richard Nixon, Apple CEO Tim Cook and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver among its most notable alumni.

Outside the classroom, the Blue Devils consistently rank among the top in the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Directors' Cup, an overall measure of an institution's athletic success. While Duke is known for its excellence in women's golf (winning NCAA National Championships in 1999, 2002, '05-07 and '14), men's basketball (1991, '92, 2001, '10) and men's lacrosse (2010, '13, '14), Duke baseball has emerged as a successful program in recent years.

More than 30 former Duke Blue Devils have made the Majors Leagues. Their most recent – and perhaps, most prominent – baseball alumnus is righthanded pitcher Marcus Stroman, who was drafted No. 22 overall by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2012 First-Year Player Draft, and made his Major League debut last May.

This June, another Duke righthander will challenge Stroman's title of highest-drafted Blue Devil. And with any luck, the margin won't be close, as scouts project him as one of the top amateur players in the country.

His name is Michael Matuella. He stands 6-foot-6 and weighs 220 pounds. He boasts a mid-90s fastball and an arsenal that features four potential plus pitches. But despite his workhorse build and electric arm, Matuella has plenty of questions to answer heading into the 2015 season. Despite all the fanfare, his journey to this point – his junior season of college – has been a long one.

Matuella lettered three years at Georgetown Prepatory School in North Bethesda, Md., and was a four-year Dean's List honoree. In 2012, he earned a Perfect Game Atlantic Region honorable mention selection. His fastball – which topped out at 88 mph – got him two scholarship offers: one from nearby University of Maryland, the other from Duke.

“It was a pretty easy decision for me,” Matuella said during a conference call with writers earlier this week. “I was looking for a good academic school and a good baseball school. I had been talking to several other schools, but I loved Duke from the start, and thought it'd be a great fit for me.”

A self described “methodical and not very aggressive” pitcher in high school, Mautella was raw when he arrived in Durham. Coach Chris Pollard helped him build an aggressive mentality to maximize his potential. Soon after, Matuella hit 93 mph – as a freshman – the result of changes to both his mechanics and lifestyle.

“Once I got here, I totally dedicated myself 100 percent to being the best player that I could be,” he said. “I was changing my eating habits, and I'm still trying to eat as healthy as I can, doing everything I can to put the right stuff in my body so I can maximize my potential on the field.”

Matuella pitched 57 2/3 innings for the Blue Devils his freshman year, and made four relief appearances for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox in the Cape Cod League that summer.

He returned with a sparkling 2.78 ERA and 69 strikeouts in 58 1/3 innings as a sophomore, while earning a spot on the All-ACC Academic Team. Although the overall numbers earned him national attention, a strained lat forced him to miss four weeks, causing concern. The lat discomfort continued upon his midseason return, and an opportunity to pitch again in the Cape Cod League went missed.

He was shut down for the summer after being diagnosed with spondylolysis, a common and manageable condition that affects three to seven percent of Americans. The condition, according to the Cleveland Clinic, “is a specific defect in the connection between vertebrae … that can lead to small stress fractures in the the vertebrae (and) can weaken the bones so much that one slips out of place.”

Luckily, the injury isn't expected to have any long-term effects. After a summer of rest, Matuella made the necessary adjustments. He adopted a new core routine in November, taking the stress off his back by strengthening his lower-half and core muscles. His long-toss routine has been adjusted as well. After throwing from 330 feet last year, Matuella has cut down to about 270 feet.

“Everything is feeling healthy now,” he said. “I just really need to commit to the core program that I've been on the last five or six months. That's been pretty instrumental in getting me healthy. As long as I maintain that and the strength that I've built up, I'm going to be fine for every start.”

That's exactly what scouts want to hear, but seeing is believing. And while the injury is, of course, cause for concern, his lack of experience because of the injury makes projecting his future a tricky game.

“We've seen this guy at 94-98 mph,” Perfect Game National Crosschecker of Scouting Frankie Piliere said. “His delivery is very good, so purely from a baseball perspective, he's got it all going on. But scouts love to have a track record to work with, and he doesn't have a long one. So the natural instinct is to be skeptical of him until they do.”

Matuella took a big step forward three weeks ago, tossing two scoreless innings in an intrasquad scrimmage in front of about 30 scouts.

“It definitely felt good to be out there,” he said. “I've been throwing bullpens since November, but I haven't been facing any hitters. So to be out there facing hitters, it felt awesome. My fastball felt good and the changeup has come a long way. It has definitely been the biggest improvement for me.”

A three-pitch pitcher last year, Matuella developed and refined his changeup in the fall to give him a fourth weapon on the mound. He throws it with a two-seam grip, giving it the same spin as his two-seam fastball, making it difficult for hitters to tell a difference between the two.

“Another key to the changeup,” he said, “is throwing it like your fastball and throwing it as hard as you can. I struggled in the past because I wasn't being aggressive with it. But the more I tried to throw it like a fastball, the better movement it gets and the better location it has. I think having that is going to be a big step for me.”

Now equipped with a lethal changeup, Matuella is working on consistently throwing all four of his pitches for strikes. Making that improvement – and staying healthy – will be very important not only to Matuella's 2015 season, but to his long-term future.

Listed as the No. 1 player in his class on Allan Simpson's Top 100 College Juniors list, the late-blooming, hard-throwing righthander will be under the microscope as the 2015 First-Year Player Draft approaches. While pro scouts salivate over his potential and question his injury and inexperience, Matuella is focused on the upcoming season.

“The only things that I can control are how hard I'm going to work and what I'm going to do to put my team in a good position to win every time I take the mound,” he said. “All that other stuff serves as a distraction, and I don't really care about that. As long as I work as hard as I can to put the team in a good position to win, everything else will take care of itself.”
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