Matt Anderson

Matthew Jason Anderson (born August 17, 1976 in Louisville, Kentucky) is a former Major League Baseball relief pitcher.

Early life and college career

Anderson attended St. Xavier High School, which was also attended by major leaguers Paul Byrd, Chris Burke, and Jack Savage. After high school, he went on to Rice University. In 1995, he was a Southwest Conference All-Star. In 1997 he was a Western Athletic Conference All-Star and a First Team College All-American. Anderson set Rice University school records for career wins (30) and saves (14), and he also posted a 1.82 ERA during his final year with the Owls. In the 1997 amateur entry draft, Anderson was picked first overall by the Detroit Tigers. He eventually signed with the team for a $2.5 million signing bonus.

Professional career

Anderson was named top prospect in the Cape Cod League in 1996 and was named the 24th best prospect in 1998 by Baseball America. In 1998, he was called up by the Tigers from the minors, where he had an ERA under 0.70. In his first major league season, he went 5–1 with a 3.27 ERA in 42 games. He also struck out 44 batters in 44 innings pitched.

In May, 2002, Anderson tore a muscle in the armpit of his throwing arm after participating in an octopus-throwing contest in hopes of winning Detroit Red Wings playoff tickets.^[1] After returning from the injury, he was unable to hit 90 mph on his fastball in his remaining days in Detroit, after regularly topping 100 mph on the radar gun, including a high mark of 103 mph twice.^[2]

Since then, he has not posted an ERA under 4.72 in the Major Leagues, or 3.79 in the minors. In 2005, he walked 11 batters and gave up 19 hits in 10 innings with the Colorado Rockies.

He started off the 2006 season with Triple-A Fresno in the San Francisco Giants organization. After going 1–2 with a 9.17 ERA in 29 games in relief with Fresno, he was released by the Giants and signed with the Bridgeport Bluefish of the independent Atlantic League, where he went 1–1 with a 4.11 ERA in 15 games. ^[3]

After not pitching at all in 2007, he was signed to a minor league contract with a non-roster invitation to spring training for 2008 by the Chicago White Sox. Anderson did not make the team and pitched for the Charlotte Knights, the White Sox's Triple-A team.

On January 14, 2011 Anderson signed a minor league contract with the Philadelphia Phillies. On April 2, 2011, he was released.

Personal life

Matt resides in Louisville, KY and his ex-wife Rebecca Norton, and their sons Jacob, Nathan, Joe, and daughter Sunny currently reside in Peachtree City, GA.

References

http://www.rice.edu/projects/thresher/issues/85/970829/Sports/Story02.html

External links

Baseball portal

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)