Matt's Mailbag: May 17, 2010

Dan asks: Hey Matt, we fans don't hear much about what players do while on the DL. Can you give us some insight on what you do to rehab and why in Arizona?

Matt answers: Hi Dan, thanks for your questions. Over the past few weeks I have been putting up videos on my hand progress and what type of things I've been doing, but I've never really explained where or when I do it. To help you understand a bit more about the rehab schedule and why I do it here in Arizona and not in San Diego, or Portland, I will go a bit more in depth about the entire rehab process.

First off, we have a minor league and major league rehabilitation coordinator that is in charge of helping any injured player get back to good health as fast and efficiently as possible. Our major league rehab coordinator is stationed in San Diego, so any player that is with the big league team that gets hurt will stay in San Diego and work with him. Any player that is in the minor leagues is sent to Peoria, Arizona, to our spring training complex where our minor league rehab coordinator is located.

My surgery was almost three weeks ago and I had my cast removed about four days ago. Now that my cast is removed I meet every morning with our rehab coordinator at around 9:30 AM to begin the rehabilitation process. Recovery time for a broken hamate bone is typically 6-8 weeks, but can sometimes run up to 10 weeks. This is a rough estimate of how my rehab program will go, but things can quickly change depending on how good or bad the hand is healing.

The first two weeks were spent in a cast. The next two weeks (weeks 2-4) will be spent regaining mobility and strength in my hand. As you can probably guess, my hand was extremely stiff when they removed the cast, so we have to spend a lot of time stretching and going through different range of motion exercises to regain that motion. At the same time we start strengthening exercises. The exercises are really simple due to the lack of strength my hand has right now. As the days pass we add more and more weight to my exercises until the strength returns to its normal state.

The following two weeks (weeks 4-6) I am allowed to hold a bat in my hands again, if the doctor clears me to do so. I have a meeting with my doctor on May 24 to decide if the hand is healing properly. These two weeks will be spent getting used to hitting again. I will work on slowly building back strength in my hand. The first day or so will be spent taking dry swings, which is just swinging a bat without hitting a ball. If that feels good the next few days will be spent hitting of a tee, followed by hitting soft toss, and then on to batting practice. It is probably a few days of each until we finally get to batting practice. If the hand continues to feel good I will be allowed to face live hitting, which is our pitchers throwing game like speed pitches to me.

The final two weeks (weeks 6-8) if I have passed all of the tests and still feel good I should be allowed to start playing in rehab games here in the Arizona Rookie Ball League. After a few weeks of games if I am still feeling good I should be ready to ship out to Portland and begin my season.

This is the game plan for the next month and a half. Hopefully I did OK explaining the rehab process, and hopefully it will all go to plan and I will be back playing in games again soon.

Below is a picture of my hand I took today. If you think it looks gross, it feels even worse to the touch. I know it looks like I drew on myself, but the long line is where they cut my hand to open it up and the holes are from the stitches.

Matt Antonelli is a second baseman in the San Diego Padres farm system. Do you have a question for Matt? Drop him an email at mattantonelli9@gmail.com or here in the comments section!

Matt's Mailbag: March 31, 2010

I received an e-mail question yesterday asking if I could explain what happens when a player gets released from a team or sent down during Spring Training or the regular season.

It just so happens that a few days ago at practice, I was sent down to Triple-A Portland. So I guess now would be the appropriate time to explain how you find out, and what actually happens when you get sent down.

During the season it is a little different, so first I'll try to give a Spring Training example of what happens when you go from Major League Spring Training to Minor League Spring Training.

First off, you never really know when cut day is coming, but usually there will be a group of guys cut on the same day, so if you see teammates being called into the manager's office, take cover.

Usually every week or so there will be a cut day all the way up to the end of Spring Training. I showed up for practice a few days ago and quickly realized it was one of those days. Technically it really isn't a true, "cut day".

If you are in Minor League Spring Training, cut day is something totally different. If you are cut in minor league camp it means you are done, you've been released. As you can probably guess, this is the absolute toughest day for not only the player, but everyone in the organization. Sometimes you will hear that baseball is a "business" and these type of days remind everyone of that fact. The toughest part about the day is that for a lot guys it is the first time they will ask themselves, "what do I do next?"

Most players have never done anything but play baseball for most of their lives. A lot of guys didn't even get a college education. They were drafted out of high school and have put in many years of playing in search of that ultimate goal of reaching the Major Leagues.

If you get cut you really only have two options: 1) try to sign on with another team, or 2) look for a new line of work. It really is one of the saddest days of the year.

A lot of times a player that gets cut is someone that you have played with for years, and this is the day you realize there could be a chance you might never see the guy again. There have been countless amounts of my friends that have been released a few years ago and I haven't seen them since that day.

As tough of a part of the game as it is we all understand that each year there will be thousands of new players trying to take your job and that's the nature of the game.

Now back to Major League Camp.

It was around 7AM when I first noticed some players being called into the office. I went about my normal morning...getting changed, eating breakfast and heading into the trainer's room to get loosened up and ready for the day's work. I had just laid down on the training table to stretch out when I heard one of our coaches call my name.

"Manager wants to see you."

Those are the words you don't want to hear if you're a player. The only time something good has come after those five words was when I got the news that I had been called up to the big leagues. I jumped up and headed into his office. It is a pretty familiar scene for me in there considering this was my third Major League Spring Training and the third time I had been called into the office towards the end of camp. I was told that I had done a good job but they had to send me down.

We talked for about five minutes before I shook every one's hand and headed out to pack up my locker.

As I said a few days ago, I had a very good idea that I wasn't going to make the team, but it still isn't ever fun to be told you didn't make a team you were trying to be on. I grabbed my equipment bag, threw my uniform, glove, bats, and anything else I could fit in there so I would only have to make one trip, and walked it over to the other side of the building to where the minor league camp is held.

That's pretty much it.

Once you get over there you are given a new locker in a much more crowded locker room. You receive your new jersey (number 41 for me), your new pants (much tighter and less comfortable ones) and your new daily schedule. You are now part of Minor League Spring Training.

Now get to work!

Matt Antonelli is a second baseman in the San Diego Padres farm system. Do you have a question for Matt? Drop him an email at mattantonelli9@gmail.com or here in the comments section!

Matt's Mailbag: March 23, 2010

After a brief hiatus, Matt Antonelli is back answering your questions...here goes!

Mike asks: When you go to bat, do you have a plan of attack? You have a reputation for being a very selective hitter. Do you look at a pitcher and think about the pitch he's going to throw you in a specific situation? Or do you wait for a pitch that you can hit well and just react? Like, do you go into a 3-1 count thinking fastball and geared to hit it? Obviously, to some extent you do, but is it more reactions or anticipation? Thanks.

Matt answers: Thanks for the question Mike. I think this is a cool question because even though I have played baseball for a long time and am still currently playing, I wonder what goes through certain players' heads while they are standing in the batters box. I've also been asked thousands of times, "were you expecting to get that pitch?"

I'll try to give a few examples and what I am thinking just prior to a thrown pitch, but I won't be able to cover every situation because that might take all day.

To start off, when I go up to hit I definitely have a plan of attack. If I have never faced a pitcher before I will watch him throw his warm-up pitches before the inning starts to see what pitches he throws and how he controls them, what his arm angle is like and how fast or slow is his delivery. I'll usually ask around to different teammates to see if anyone has faced him in the past and what information they have on him.

After he has warmed up and I walk to the plate I have to think about the game situation that we are in. What inning it is, what is the score, if we have any runners on base, could there be a good chance of a hit and run or a bunt, do I have to hit the ball to the right side to move a runner over to third, is there a runner on third and we need a sac fly, those type of things.

Every single different situation makes me think differently about what pitches I might see and where they pitcher is going to try to locate them.

Let's just say I am hitting early in the game with nobody on base and a tied score. This is probably the most basic example I can think of. I walk to the plate against a guy I have never seen before and know nothing about other than he's a lefty with an 88 mph fastball and he likes his change-up against a right-handed hitter. First pitch I would probably be sitting on, my favorite pitch, a fastball middle of the plate, and I'm looking to hit something hard right back up the middle on a line.

He throws a fastball, a great pitch on the outside corner for a strike. Because it wasn't the location I was looking for and it was early in the count I take it for strike one. Now it's 0-1 and I step out of the batters box. I have a good idea about how his fastball looks. When I step back in I know I can't look for my absolute favorite pitch because I'm behind in the count, but I still don't have to swing at anything just because its a strike.

I'll open my zone up a little bit, but still look for something middle-away to drive right back at the pitcher or to the second baseman. I still sit on a fastball, but because I am looking to hit the ball back up the middle or hard at the second baseman I am ready to hit an off-speed pitch if he leaves it in my area. If I was looking to pull a fastball I wouldn't have much of a chance to hit an off-speed pitch hard.

Next pitch is a fastball located perfectly on the inside corner. I take it for strike two. Damn this guy is pretty good. I tip my hat to him and get ready to battle. He has thrown two great pitches, something that doesn't happen all the time, but will happen every once and a while.

It isn't fun being down 0-2, but now I got to do what I can to put a ball in play. I have to swing at a strike no matter what part of the plate it is located on. I step in and am looking for a pitch away, but ready to react to anything inside. With two strikes this is probably my best strategy. If I look away I still have the ability to react to a fastball in and hopefully foul it off. If I happened to look for a pitch in and got a change-up away I wouldn't have much of a chance of doing anything with it. I also don't just sit on a fastball anymore. I start to sit on something a little softer, and if he throws his fastball I will have to react quickly to fight it off.

He throws an 0-2 fastball inside again but this time misses for a ball. Now I'm 1-2, not much better than 0-2, but I have another chance at a mistake pitch left over the plate. I stay with my same approach looking soft away.

The next pitch is a 1-2 change-up away but he doesn't put it where he wants it. He leaves it up a little and it hits a good amount of plate. Because I'm looking for something softer and away its right where I am looking. I hit a ball right back up the middle for a base hit.

That is an example of a typical at-bat I would face in say the first inning of a game in Triple-A. When you are in the Major Leagues it is a lot different. Before the game even starts you would look at film of the opposing starting pitcher. I would already know what his fastball looks like, how his change-up looks and how hard it is, and if he has a curve ball or slider to go with it. I would also have a really good idea about how he likes to work right-handed hitters.

Before every game we are given a scouting report on the opposing pitcher we are facing. It will give a few words about what type of pitcher he is and what his tendencies are. It will show what percentage he throws each pitch at each count. For example it would say that to right-hander, 0-0 he throws a fastball 72%, a change-up 22% and a curve ball 6%.

It would have this breakdown for every count possible, so when you get to that count you have a reference on what he might be thinking. Of course, you still have to take the game situation into consideration. If there is a man on second and a base open in a tied game in the bottom of the 8th, that is going to change up his thinking a lot. Same thing if you happen to be a 3 hitter versus a 9 hitter.

Baseball is absolutely not an exact science, but any information you can get on someone, even if it is small can help. Players in the Major Leagues are the best players in the world, so even small things can sometimes make a big difference.

Now to give a few examples of in-game situations that might change your thinking a little bit. I won't break down the entire at-bat but just throw the examples out there.

Say you are hitting with a man on second in a close game with no outs and your job is to move the runner. Now you could bunt if you wanted, but usually you will take the option to swing and move him with a ground ball to the right side.

The first thing I would do is move off the plate a little bit. I do this because I want to hit the ball to the right side, so getting a pitch on the outside part of the plate makes it easier to do than a pitch on the inside part of the plate. By moving off the plate I turn the inside part of the plate into the middle of the plate, and the middle into the outside.

Just as you know that your job is to move the ball to the right side, the pitcher knows the same thing and he isn't going to give you a nice pitch on the outside corner to make your job easier. I'm going to look for a pitch out over the plate to make my job easier. He is probably going to try and throw a sinking fastball located over the inside part of the plate or an off-speed pitch to get me to roll over to the 3rd baseman or shortstop. If he can locate three pitches were he wants them it will make my job really tough, but if he makes a mistake I have to be ready to capitalize on it and do my job.

Next, say I am hitting with a runner on third and less than two outs in a one run game. The opposing team decides to play the infield in. Before I step into the box I decide I want to hit a ball in the air to the outfield for a sacrifice fly.

In this situation I am going to look for a fastball up in the zone which will make hitting a fly ball much easier. The pitcher is going to try and locate a pitch down in the zone to induce a ground ball. If he has a good sinking fastball he will probably use this, but can also go with off-speed pitches located down. A lot of these situations come down to pitch recognition.

Do I know what pitch I am looking for and can I recognize when I am getting it? Then, can I put a good swing on the ball to do my job?

If I can, I will get an RBI and hopefully help our team get a victory.

As you can see there are different things to think about in different situations. I wish I had more time to keep going into different situations but there are literally hundreds of different situations we could talk about. I hope you found this useful and next time you see a guy up in one of these situations you will have a better idea about what both he and the pitcher are thinking.

Thanks again for the question.

Matt Antonelli is a second baseman in the San Diego Padres farm system. Do you have a question for Matt? Drop him an email at mattantonelli9@gmail.com or here in the comments section!

Matt's Mailbag: March 19, 2010

Simply put, good friend of The Hall, contributor Matt Antonelli is having a good spring. In fact, going into the weekend, he's hitting ..375 (9 for 24) through 12 games with the Padres this spring.

In lieu of the normal "Matt's Mailbag" feature...give Matt's interview with HotStove.com a listen.

Matt's Mailbag: March 3, 2010

Peter asks: I have followed the Padres since I was eight and am a true fan. How did it feel to make your Major League debut?

Matt answers: I've been asked this question numerous times over the last year or so and I usually give the same response.

Most guys will tell you when asked this question that it was a dream come true and something that they had been working towards their whole life. While this is absolutely true, I want to go a bit more in depth about everything that happened leading up to my debut and my feelings about that day.

Playing in the Major Leagues is something I hoped would happen since I was a little kid. When I was younger I loved two sports, hockey and baseball.

For most of my life I wanted to be a center in the NHL, or a shortstop in the MLB. I always had a dream as a young kid of playing in the big leagues, but I'm not sure I ever really thought that dream would one day come true. Millions of young kids play baseball all around the world, and they all dream about one day playing in a big league stadium, however the smallest percentage of them ever end up doing so.

My big league call-up was actually nothing like the way I had envisioned it happening.

In 2007 I was stationed in Double-A San Antonio, playing the absolute best baseball of my life. It was the first time in my baseball career that I could actually picture myself playing in the Major Leagues.

I remember our GM coming into town to watch a few players who could potentially get a call-up for the stretch run and thinking to myself that my debut could be right around the corner. I ended up going into a slump the last few weeks of our season and didn't end up getting that call. Although I was upset that I didn't do well enough to get a chance that year, I felt that it just wasn't my time. I had just turned 22 during that season and it was my first year playing 2nd base.

The truth is I still needed a lot of improvement if I wanted to be a Major League 2nd baseman.

I entered the 2008 season at Triple-A Portland, Oregon. Going into that season I was planning on having the biggest and best year of my life. I felt that if I played the type of baseball I knew I was capable of playing, I would receive a promotion a few months into the season.

During that off-season I had worked out harder than ever before and entered spring training weighing 220 pounds. I honestly felt I was going to be a 220 pound, power hitting, base stealing second baseman. The previous year I hit 21 home runs and wanted to hit 30 this time around.

Anyone that has followed my career knows that things didn't exactly go according to plan. I started the year hitting around .200 and it only got worse as the year went on. August 1st rolled around and my average was around .180 with thoughts of a call-up all but thrown down the drain. It was the first time in my life in which I played a full season of either high school, college, or pro ball and hit under .300. Only this time around I was hitting under .200.

I'm not really sure what happened or why I didn't play well that year.

My swing wasn't working the way I wanted it to and I started to make a little change here, and a little change there. After a few months I had literally forgot how to swing. I wasn't just having trouble hitting in games, I was actually having trouble hitting in batting practice too. You could even put a ball on a tee and I would find a way to make the task of hitting a stationary ball look difficult. I usually look at things with the belief that,"everything happens for a reason", and maybe it just wasn't my time to play in the big leagues.

That August I went back to the drawing board, dissecting my swing, tearing it apart, and trying to put it back together. I was mentally beaten down and physically drained, and I couldn't take the striking out, the pop-ups, or the ground balls to 3rd anymore.

For the first few months of the season I thought that one day I would wake up and realize everything was just a dream. It took me about four months before I came to the realization that this in fact wasn't a nightmare, but stone cold reality. I started to spend many hours each night watching video of my swing with my roommate Shawn Wooten, at that time a 36 year-old veteran catcher who had won a World Series ring with the Anaheim Angels.

Shawn has a great eye for hitting and was a huge help to me that season. I would literally grab a broom stick, or anything in the room that resembled a baseball bat, and re-construct my swing from the ground up with his help. If he didn't end up getting traded to us during that year from the Mets, and wasn't my roommate during the end of that season, I don't know if I would have ever figured my swing out.

With his help I ended up hitting almost .300 with 5 home runs that last month of the season. The first four months of the season I hit around .180 with 2 home runs. Two days before the season ended I was playing a game in Tacoma, Washington when I was called into our manager's office and told to sit down.

I knew that usually when this happens you have either gotten called up or released, and I didn't think at 23 years old I was getting the "ax". Our manager told me that I would be flying out the next morning to make my Major League debut in Los Angeles against the Dodgers. I honestly didn't believe him when he told me.

I thought it was actually a joke to see if I was stupid enough to think a guy that just hit .213 in Triple-A would get a call-up. It wasn't a joke, and I was going up the next day.

Like I said earlier, I want to be honest with you about what went through my head when I got the news.

In a lot of ways I didn't think I deserved the shot. There were guys on my team that had great years, much better years than me with the bat, that wouldn't be getting the privilege of putting on a big league uniform that September. I usually don't mention other people's names on here, but for this one time I will.

We had a guy on the team, a friend of mine, Peter Ciofrone. The guy had one of the best years I had seen since becoming a professional. He was sent to Portland around May and ended up hitting around .320 with like 16 home runs.

The first thing that actually ran through my head when I got the news was that Pete didn't get called up, and I really wished he was also getting an opportunity, because he deserved it.

The second thing that came to my mind was gratitude.

I was extremely grateful that the Padres had stuck by me and still gave me a chance to get my shot at what I had always wanted. They could have easily sent me down to Double-A when I started the season slow around .200, or when July rolled around and my average dipped below the Mendoza Line, but they stuck by me and kept writing my name in the lineup everyday.

The third thing that came to my mind was the hard work I had put in and the sacrifices my family and I had made the past ten to fifteen years to get to where I was.

Although my call up didn't turn out the way I thought it would, I had still achieved one of the goals I had set for myself years before. I had put in thousands of hours of practice, spent hundreds of days away from my home, family, and friends, and dedicated day after day all year round to lifting weights, running, eating right, and taking care of my body, all for the ultimate goal of playing in the Major Leagues.

My parents and family had driven me around to practices all over the state, spent thousands of dollars on traveling teams, and flew to all parts of the country to give me the best opportunities to continue to improve as a player. I was just really appreciative of all the sacrifices they had made as well. All that work had paid off, but much more work will have to be done to be the player I really want to be.

I flew out of Seattle the next morning headed to L.A. for my first game. When I walked onto the field at Dodger Stadium and the lights came on, the national anthem ended, and the first pitch was thrown, it was game time and it really never registered that I was about my make my Major League Debut.

I honestly thought it was going to feel a lot different than it did. I'm not going to lie, I was more nervous about the start of this game than I had been at the beginning of any other game in my life, but it still kind of felt like another baseball game to me.

I didn't get up in the top of the 1st, so my first action would be at second base in the field. The first batter of the game for the Dodgers was Russell Martin and he hit a hard ground ball at me. As soon as I made that play and threw to first for the out I felt a rush of calmness come over me. From that point on I felt that I could just play baseball.

The next inning I came up to bat against future Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux.

On a 1-1 count I got a fastball out over the plate and hit a line drive to center field, one of the cooler moments of my life and something I will never forget. After the game I showered up, went out for a bite to eat with my family, and headed back to my hotel.

Like I usually do when I get home after a game I laid in bed and flipped on Sportscenter. After a few minutes the Padres vs. Dodgers highlights came on. It showed a few shots of Manny Ramirez driving in a run, Greg Maddux striking a guy out, and a Jonathan Broxton pitch grounded to short for the last out of the game hit by me.

That was the moment it actually hit me that I had played in a Major League game.

Matt Antonelli is a second baseman in the San Diego Padres farm system. Do you have a question for Matt? Drop him an email at mattantonelli9@gmail.com or here in the comments section!

Matt's Mailbag: February 24, 2010

Gustavo asks: Congrats on making it all the way to Arizona safely, but may I ask why you didn't just catch a plane? Did you want to see the scenery or experienced a long road trip?

Matt answers: I have told hundreds of people that I drove out to Spring Training this year and every single one of them responded with the same question. "Why the hell would you do that?" I figured I'd take the time here to let everyone know exactly why I decided to drive so maybe I won't ever be asked again, or at least not as much.

Two years ago while playing in single-A at Lake Elsinore, California, I had my car with me and loved every minute of it. Not having a car makes life miserable. Just think if you didn't have your car with you everyday. You might make it a day, maybe two, but to survive eight straight months without a ride would probably drive you crazy. I hate having to depend on other people for things, and I hate to ask people for rides even more. I've done two years in Portland, Oregon without a car and I never want to do it again.

In July of that 2007 season I was called up to Double-A in San Antonio, Texas. I needed to fly out the next day to meet my team in Midland, Texas, so I had a company ship my car. I hate the idea of handing my car over to complete strangers. At this time my car was only a few months old and I had spent a good amount of money on it. It was the one gift I bought for myself after getting drafted and I'm really anal about making sure nothing bad ever happens to it. I wouldn't have let my grandmother drive the thing at this point, except maybe for one of her quick trips to Stop and Shop, so I sure as hell didn't want some random kids taking it across the country.

If you haven't had a car shipped before, it's a pretty simple process. They show up with one of those huge trucks you see driving down the highway with tons of cars strapped to it. It depends how far they are traveling, but usually taking my car across the country will take about two weeks. Because I was only going from southern California to Texas they told me it would take a few days at the most.

I stuffed most of my belongings in my car and watched them strap it onto their truck. They said they'd see me in Texas in two days and drove away. I jumped in my host families car and got dropped off at the airport for my flight.

After arriving in Texas and playing for almost two weeks I called my car service to find out why the hell it hadn't arrived yet. I got a few different excuses like, we hit traffic, we had to pick up another few cars along the way, we didn't know how to start your car, and we needed to change drivers. I really did hear the excuse that they didn't know how to start the car. I started to worry when I heard this one, but in the end they were professionals (so I thought) and I gave them the benefit of the doubt and waited. They told me the car would be there the next day.

A week more had passed and I was just getting home from a road trip when they finally showed up and left my car at my apartment and took off. At this point I hadn't played my XBOX in almost a month and really wanted to play some Madden. If you have read my blog before you know that I love video games, and a month away from them is a long, long time. Before I ran down to my car to grab my XBOX I joked with my roommate, "Dude what would happen if I opened my car and my XBOX was gone?" I said it joking around, never actually thinking it wouldn't be in there.

I ran downstairs to my car and opened the trunk where I had my XBOX, about 30 games, my DVD collection, all my electronics, my clothes, and a bunch of other stuff. I was basically moving all of my belongings to Texas in my car. When I opened my trunk I couldn't believe what I saw. Someone had stolen pretty much everything. The only thing they left for me was some of my clothes.

I guess they must not like my style of clothing!

A few weeks earlier I had played in the Single-A All-Star game in Stockton, California. I know it is only Single-A, but it was my first All-Star game as a professional. Whoever took my stuff ended up taking my All-Star jersey that I was given, along with a plaque, an All-Star bag, and a bunch of other signed baseballs and things from some of the guys on that team. None of these things could be replaced, which was really upsetting.

I opened the driver's door and jumped in looking for any other clues of abuse I could find.

I found a women's hair clip in the center console. "That son of a bitch used my car to take his date out!" Now I was really pissed. I called my girlfriend and anyone else that would answer to tell them about the clip I had found. She let me know that it was her hair clip and no one took a girl out on a date. It made me feel better, but not very much. I turned the car on to make sure it started OK. I looked at the odometer to see if they had driven it anywhere. Turns out they put more than 800 miles on the car. I paid them $1200 to ship my car about 1000 miles and it turns out they put almost that many miles on the car. I could have driven myself to Texas, saved my $1200, and actually had my possessions when I got there.

I got on the phone with the company and told them exactly what happened. They said it wasn't there fault, and there was no way I could prove they stole anything. They said that someone must have opened the car and stolen my belongings while the car was parked overnight. Last time I checked I don't think a thief would take a car off the back of a truck, drive it 800 miles, steal all of the belongings in the car, and then take the time to put the car back up on the truck before they took off.

That doesn't make much sense to me.

Either way, I really didn't have any proof, and they said they weren't liable for anything. I ended up filing a police report and had some of the things covered by my insurance company. I never did get back any of my all-star stuff.

Well, now you know why I am forever afraid of shipping companies and why I probably won't be shipping my car anywhere else. 40 hour drive from Boston to Peoria it is.

Matt Antonelli is a second baseman in the San Diego Padres farm system. Do you have a question for Matt? Drop him an email at mattantonelli9@gmail.com or here in the comments section!

Welcome Aboard Matt Antonelli!

It's with great pleasure that I welcome into the fold here at The Hall of Very Good, San Diego Padres farmhand Matt Antonelli.

Matt is expected to do two things this season...compete for the starting gig at second for the friars Triple-A Portland Beavers and provide The Hall with a unique perspective unmatched by many independent baseball blogs.

In what will be a regular feature, "Matt's Mailbag", the Peabody, Massachusetts native will answer questions posed to him by fans. He will also be providing commentary and sharing insight on many of the topics The Hall will be tackling this upcoming season.

Now...a little about Antonelli.

Matt was drafted by the Padres in the first round (17th overall) of the 2006 Major League draft and quickly worked his way up through their minor league system.

In 2007, he was part of the Double-A San Antonio Missions championship team and almost a year later (September 2008), he was making his big league debut. In his first at bat for the Padres, Antonelli laced a single off future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux.

Antonelli called Portland home in 2009 and, currently, is taking grounders and hitting the cage at the Padres spring training facility in Peoria, Arizona.

Send him an email at mattantonelli9@gmail.com, cross your fingers and hope your question is the next one answsered as part of "Matt's Mailbag".