Results tagged ‘ Don Mattingly ’
Yankees sign Preston Mattingly to Minor League contract
The Yankees announced on Wednesday that they have signed outfielder Preston Mattingly, the son of franchise icon Don Mattingly, to a Minor League contract.
The 24-year-old Mattingly played at two different levels with the Los Angeles Dodgers organization in 2011, hitting .232 (38-for-164) with five doubles, five home runs and 19 RBIs in 53 combined games with Single-A Great Lakes and Single-A Rancho Cucamonga.
Originally drafted by the Dodgers in Compensation Round A of the 2006 First Year-Player Draft, Mattingly has compiled a Minor League batting average of .232 in six seasons in the Dodgers and Indians organizations.
The elder Mattingly, entering his second season as the Dodgers’ manager, played his entire 14-year career in Yankees pinstripes from 1982 through 1995.
A career .307 hitter, Mattingly won the 1985 American League MVP award, earning six All-Star selections and nine Rawlings Gold Glove Awards. His uniform No. 23 was retired by the club in 1997.
Another of Mattingly’s sons has also played in the Yankees system. New York selected Taylor Mattingly in the 42nd round of the 2003 First Year Player Draft, and he played 24 games in the organization that year.
Mattingly: Teixeira will do fine
Don Mattingly, who still resides on the wall of Mark Teixeira’s boyhood room slugging a pitch into the Yankee Stadium outfield, checks in with the New York Post:
“Teixeira’s a great player, there’s no question about that and I appreciate the way he plays and I think the Yankee fans are going to enjoy him,” Donnie Baseball said. “I had lunch with him a few years back, so I knew he was a fan. He seemed like a really good kid.”
There’s a neat graphic accompanying Kevin Kernan’s story in the Post. From 1984-1989, Mattingly had hit .327 with 160 home runs and 684 RBIs. From 2003-2008, Teixeira hit .290 with 203 home runs and 676 RBIs. They’re not exact mirror images but you can certainly make a comparison between the two.
“His swing is a little different than mine in that he is more of an upper-cutter, more of a power swing than I had him,” Mattingly said. “But when you look at guys and you hope that you shaped the way they play and I see some of that when I look at him.”
The Yankees are getting a good one, but you already knew that.
Bryan Hoch
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