Mariners' Tuiasosopo over his slump
Prospect trained hard in offseason, rediscovered old swing
Blessed with legendary sporting genes, athletics had always come easily for Matt Tuiasosopo, the son of former NFL great Manu, an All-American high school quarterback, rated the second-best baseball player among draft-eligible prepsters.
Yep, a veritable stud, a can't-miss infielder for the Seattle Mariners.
He still is, but when Spring Training opened here Tuiasosopo was a changed man. At 20 he is stronger physically after serious winter training and, more importantly, the third baseman has rediscovered his sweet swing after facing a baseball demon he'd never confronted before, a word he never knew was in his vocabulary.
"Failure," he said. "It was definitely humbling."
You have no idea.
Everything was going fine for Tuiasosopo in Inland Empire. Then, came a promotion to San Antonio.
"First couple weeks I was hitting .270, .280, but they wanted me to change some mechanics, nothing big," said Matt. "Then I started getting into my slump. It got real mechanical, from my stance to where my feet where, to where my hands were positioned.
"It started creeping into my head, and now it was a big mental problem," he said.
The result? A .185 mark over 62 games and a somewhat bewildered Tuiasosopo, who came to the plate with his head whirling with geometrical puzzles, his once-sound mechanics now a jumble of on-the-fly adjustments.
Speaking of adjustments:
Wearing shaggier hair now with light stubble, Tuiasosopo says he changed his looks to help forget last season, to start the season anew. ...
"After working with a personal trainer, this is the strongest I've been and my body feels great," Tuiasosopo said. "I did weight stuff and core work and did a lot of speed and agility drills."And with my swing back, I have all my confidence," he said.
Sounds like a plan. Click on the link for a picture of the shaggier Matt Tuiasosopo.
Edit: Link added.
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