Minor league baseball players no longer take long bus rides without the benefits of air conditioning, nor do they stay in cheap motels during road trips, but having already moved through two minor league levels since being drafted in June, Roslyn native Matt Soren is getting a full taste of minor league life.
“It’s no Bull Durham, that’s for sure,” said Soren, 22. “It’s not a Major League lifestyle, of course, but it’s a good experience going through these little towns.”
Selected in the 19th round of this year’s Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft out of the University of Delaware by the Philadelphia Phillies, Soren has made six appearances for the organization’s Gulf Coast League affiliate in Clearwater, Florida before moving on to his current assignment with the Williamsport Crosscutters of the New York Penn League.
The New York Penn League is comprised of what is considered “short-season low-A ball” minor league affiliates with recently-drafted players from many from East Coast Major League Baseball teams. The local Brooklyn Cyclones (New York Mets) and Staten Island Yankees (New York Yankees) participate in the Penn League’s McNamara division.
“Most guys out of college come here first,” Soren said. “You don’t start out at [general] A ball unless you’re a first round pick, but even [No. 1 overall pick] Mark Appel made a few appearances in the Penn League and now he’s up [at the A level].”
In his first appearance with Williamsport on July 17, Soren allowed two runs on three hits in just one-third of an inning, and three days later gave up two more runs (one earned) while also walking two batters in his two innings of work.
But in his July 27 appearance against Pinckney Division-leading Jamestown, Soren fared much better, holding the Jammers scoreless on three hits over three relief innings while walking one and striking out one.
“At this level, coaches want to see good fastball command, they want to see quick innings, they want to see low pitch counts,” Soren said. “This is the most we’ve thrown in our lives, going since school ball, and they’re expecting the best out of you.”
A 2009 Roslyn High School graduate, Soren went 4-5 in 15 games this spring as a senior at Delaware, finishing with a 3.62 ERA and 81 strikeouts in 74.2 innings. He was named the Colonial Athletic Association’s Pitcher of the Week twice during the season.
“I’m very happy for Matt,” Delaware head coach Jim Sherman said in an athletic department release after the draft. “He is a hard thrower who professional baseball scouts really like and now he has the chance he wanted. He worked hard this year and it paid off for him.”
Soren is 20th Delaware player ever to be drafted by the Phillies and the first since infielder Carlos Alonso in 2010. Philadelphia later selected Soren’s teammate, Delaware outfielder Nick Ferdinand, in the draft’s 35th round.
Soren said he always had “an inkling” that he’d one day play professional baseball, and talked with those he knew in the Phillies farm system and his coaches at Delaware about what to expect at the game’s next level.
So what advice did he receive?
“You can’t get ahead of yourself,” Soren said. “You get to the pro level and things will get fast, but just treat it the same. You’re the same guy, the same pitcher. The guy in the box is the only thing that’s different. If you change your mindset, it’ll affect the way you play the game.”
Soren said he hasn’t talked much with his Roslyn High School coaches lately, though he said people in the community regularly ask his parents how he is doing in the minor leagues.
“It’s good to know the town’s behind me and of course I want to make them proud,” Soren said. “I’m happy they’re behind me in all I do and to have them on my back.”
Soren said Williamsport has put him on a much stricter and more organized throwing regiment than he experienced with Philadelphia’s Gulf Coast affiliate or at Delaware, pitching in games every three days and throwing bullpen sessions more frequently than before.
“It’s definitely been a grind coming from college, where it’s hard work but not the everyday grind of baseball morning to night,” Soren said. “It’s a mental game now, more than physical, and will take some time getting used to.”
But at such a low level of the minor leagues, Soren said Williamsport coaches have stressed the fundamental aspects of pitching and focused on establishing his fastball before any other pitch in his repertoire.
“They just want us to throw like we did in college and tweak a thing here and there,” Soren said. “Everyone in this league right now is out of college and in the same boat, and it’s good in that aspect because everyone’s still learning.”
