Faces on the Field: Matt Fornasiere
That's what happens when you're the son of a college baseball coach. Fornasiere, the Indians' 12th-round pick in last June's draft, more or less grew up in the University of Minnesota program, where his father Rob is the assistant coach. He'd been a part of the Golden Gophers since before he could remember, basically cementing where he'd play college ball while he was still in utero.
"The head coach was there when I was born, so you can pretty much go from there," Fornasiere said. "It wasn't written in stone but very close."
Some may not like the idea of playing for dad, but Fornasiere loved his experience at Minnesota. After all those years of tagging along with his father, dad kind of got out of his son's way and just let him do his thing. He did it to the tune of a .326 career average in three years.
"He'd bring me to the ballpark and I kind of just watched other guys. That's what he told me to do [when I was younger]," Fornasiere said. "When I was at school, he didn't really do a lot of coaching; he left that to the head coach. I had a good time with it more than anything else."
He's had a good time as a pro as well. A shortstop in college, Fornasiere started making the transition to second base last summer with Mahoning Valley in the New-York Penn League. He hit .256 but walked (48) almost as often as he struck out (50) en route to a nifty .390 on-base percentage.
"It was nice to get off to a good start last year," said Fornasiere, who finished third in the league in walks. "I got comfortable, things slowed down for me, and that helped me out a lot."
It apparently has carried over. Now playing second every day, Fornasiere is hitting .361 through 10 games for the Lake County Captains, the Indians' affiliate in the low-A South Atlantic League. He continues to show outstanding plate discpline with a .432 OBP.
"He's solid," Lake County manager Lee May Jr. said. "He's come out every day and been very consistent. He puts up consistent at-bats and goes about it in a professional manner. It's fun to watch the evolution of that kind of hitter, especially with the amount of growth [he's shown]."
He's exhibited an evolution in his defensive game as well. With Mahoning Valley in his debut, Fornasiere committed 21 errors in 58 games, 40 at second, 18 at his old position on the other side of second. This season, focusing on just the one spot, he's made one error, coming in his ninth game in the field.
Truth be told, the fact he plays his home games at Classic Park doesn't hurt. Built in 2003, it's about as nice a stadium as there is at any level of the Minors and not what one would expect to see in the South Atlantic League. It was voted the best playing surface in the league in both 2003 and 2004 and finished second in the SAL in average attendance in 2005.
"They've been winning awards for the surface and fans coming to the game, things like that," said Fornasiere, who clearly likes hitting at home, too, to the tune of a .409 average. "I'm an infielder and the surface is awesome, so I can't ask for anything better."
He's got no complaints about the organiztion, either. He didn't know until draft day that the Indians were going to take him -- he calls that a pleasant surprise. All one has to do is look at the average age of the big-league roster to understand why it's good to be a part of the Indians organization, but it's something the Minor Leaguers are told from the get-go: the Indians are all about player development. If you develop, you will get a shot.
"There are a lot of young guys on the big-league club," said Fornasiere, who has the added benefit of not being blocked by as much positional depth as, say, some outfielders in the system are. "I was in my first Spring Training and there was an enormous amount of talent there, so you have to play well if you want to move up."
Jonathan Mayo is a reporter for MLB.com.