The Matt Szczur Story

Matt Szczur of Lower Cape May Regional just completed a six week stint playing for the Mesa Solar Sox of the Arizona Fall League. He was one of seven Chicago Cubs’ top prospects who joined prospects from the Orioles, Dodgers, Tigers and Astros in the “finishing school” for young baseball talent.
Players are selected by their organizations to play in the AFL for various reasons; some players are being rewarded for exceptional seasons or growth. Others are sent to play to make up at-bats or innings lost to injury. Still others are getting last looks and are being showcased in front of 29 potential trade partners. Ultimately the eyes of 30 organizations are watching in a baseball-only environment with few distractions involving the top young talent in the game. This year there were 34 former first-round draft choices playing on the six teams.
Cubs Farm Director Brandon Hyde said Matt has shown great improvement this year and has played all three outfield positions very well. His offense improved and he put some good numbers up at AA Tennessee. He just needs to get more at-bats and against the top competition every day. We want to see him continue to get at-bats as he missed a month of the season and is still playing the sport full time only for a short while.”
Solar Sox manager Rodney Linares (Astros) concurred and put for this game plan for him. “He has to learn to work the counts especially if they want him to hit at the top of the order. I have been batting him there-so he can utilize his speed and work on counts and get better pitch recognition.”
In 23 of the 24 games he started, he batted lead off and played center field. He batted .264, reached base safely in 19 and most importantly scored 13 runs, stole 9 bases and walked 14 times. He also had one home run and 13 runs batted in, while playing error-free center field.
Of the overall experience he said, “This is the best baseball I have ever played, the guys are great, the coaches, and managers are great. It is stress-free baseball. While it doesn’t count, it counts and being a very competitive person it counts for oneself even more. It has been fun to play with guys that I have played against.”
These numbers are typical for one who has represented his organization in the All-Star Futures Game (2011), has risen up the organization’s top prospect list and in only two years he has earned a spot on the Cubs 40-man roster since being drafted by the Cubs in the fifth round of the 2010 draft.
Baseball players are often defined by their “measurable” and their numbers. However, they are all individuals who have character strengths and weaknesses that can impact their numbers and future performance. Those around Szczur look beyond his mere numbers when assessing the young man and ballplayer.
Brian Harper who managed Matt this past season in Daytona and was the hitting coach for Mesa said, “Matt is a great kid, a real competitor. He plays really hard and works hard too. I can go on and on about him. He is a great teammate who is learning to be a good hitter and already plays center very well. I think he is a great kid who has the potential to be a good ballplayer.”
Everyone is well aware of his off the field sacrifice he made when he donated peripheral blood stem cells to a young leukemia patient. That he did this selfishly is great but what is more important is that the decision to do so came easily for him. He credits his family and the upbringing he received. “Once I heard about the situation it wasn’t even a battle. I knew exactly what I was going to do and my coaches knew what I was going to do. For them it was like ‘oh man’ but they knew what type of guy I am.”
Solar Sox manager Linares explains how his character strengths can benefit him as a baseball player, “I had never seen Matt play before the AFL but I know Harp (Brian Harper) very well and we talked and he is as good as advertised. He has a chance to be an everyday player in the big leagues, but he still has some work to do. He is aggressive and plays the game as hard as anybody I have been around. He takes pride in what he does and he does have that football mentality in him, which works in his favor.”
That football mentality obviously helped him as he was a major part of the Wildcats 2009 FCS National Championship. That mentality and his upbringing also helped earn him a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications, having to take extra classes because he was not allowed to complete his senior project because he was off campus with the team.
Fans approach him for different reasons; in the AFL it is mostly for his autograph. Many autograph seekers in the AFL do not dig deeply into a player’s biography, they are rather mercenary and that does not bother Szczur. Rather, he is more appreciative of the fans, which may live in a Cubs minor league city and have done a little research and know him for more than the two-sport star from Villanova. Some of the others merely approach him to thank him for his involvement with Be The Match Registry (www.marrow.org) and The Szczur Swab, which is done with Lower Cape May Regional. He is very proud that they have signed up over 1,000 people to donate bone marrow.
George Springer is a Solar Sox teammate with whom Szczur has a special relationship. Springer, a prospect in the Astros organization played against Szczur and Villanova, when he played for the University of Connecticut. Springer says of their past, “Matt was a good player, ‘that guy’ our team would always watch out for. We laugh now and are pretty friendly.”
For Szczur’s part he remembers Nova having Springer’s number but when asked who impressed him in the AFL, Springer’s name came up first. He called him, “Superman because George can do anything out there.”
This Renaissance man is an artist on the side, charcoal drawing is his current bent although he took up crochet when he needed a break from drawing. While his Mesa teammates got a chuckle he merely smiled and indicated he wouldn’t be drawing any portraits of fellow Cub prospect Tony Zych any time soon as that would require looking at his face for a long time.
Talent, hard work, a sense of humor and strong character- — just what someone needs to end a century-long World Series Championship drought.
MATT SZCZUR