Matt Craig

Matthew James Craig

• Bats Both, Throws Right
• Height 6' 3", Weight 2165 lb.
• School University of Richmond
• High School Trinity Christian Academy (Addison)

• Born April 16, 1981 in Dallas, TX USA

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Infielder Matt Craig was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 3rd round of the 2002 amateur draft out of the University of Richmond. He played n the minor leagues from 2002 to 2010.

In his first professional season, 2002, he played 37 games for the Boise Hawks of the Northwest League, hitting .193 with 5 homers and 20 RBIs. In 2003, he moved up to the Daytona Cubs in the Florida State League, where he hit .285/.357/.425 in 119 games, with 11 homers and 66 RBIs. He followed that by hitting .275/.363/..509 in 112 games for the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx of the Southern League in 2004, with 20 homers and 63 RBIs. With the same team in 2005, he played 99 games, hitting .275/.340/.459, with 12 homers and 57 RBIs. During those first four season, he was mainly a third baseman, although he began transitioning to first base in 2005.

His repeating at AA in 2005 was a bit hard to understand, but a motivating factor was that he was one of seven players in the organization to be suspended for 15 games for testing positive for a banned substance. However, it was a real head-scratcher that saw him return to the FSL and the Daytona Cubs in 2006. Apparently there was some thought of turning him into a catcher, but he never appeared in a game at the position. He did well in Daytona, as could be expected, hitting .287/.384/.458 with 12 homers and 58 RBIs and making the mid-season All-Star team, but then again he should have been playing in AAA at that point of his career. In 2007 he did make it to AAA after 87 games with the Tennessee Smokies, finishing the year with 31 games for the Iowa Cubs in the Pacific Coast League. He hit .326 at Tennessee and made the mid-season All-Star squad for the second straight year, and .273 in Iowa, for a combined line of .311/.393/.500 with 14 homers and 69 RBIs in 118 games. But that seemingly was not enough for the Cubs to give him an extended shot at AAA, since in 2008 he again split his season between the two same teams and again hit well at both stops: .333 in 42 games in AA and .276 in 36 games in AAA. On August 9th, playing for Iowa, he was part of a historic game in which Iowa set a franchise record with 8 homers in a 15-3 beating of the Round Rock Express. Teammate Micah Hoffpauir grabbed the headlines by hitting four home runs, but he also hit one, as did Felix Pie, Jason Dubois and pitcher Mitch Atkins.

Clearly stuck with the Cubs, he moved on to the Florida Marlins in 2009, starting the year back in AA with the Jacksonville Suns. For the third straight year, he hit .300 or better in the Southern League, with an even .300 in 20 games, to earn a promotion to the AAA New Orleans Zephyrs on May 6th. He hit .253 in 31 games there but was set back by an injury, and only two weeks after coming back was sent back to the Cubs. At least they kept him in Iowa the rest of the year, and he hit .269 in 59 games. Altogether, between the three stops, he was .272/.333/.430 in 110 games, with 11 homers and 46 RBIs. He became a free agent again after that season and went to the independent leagues, spending 2010 with the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs in the Atlantic League. He continued to hit well, with a line of .323/.423/.521, with 30 homers and 15 doubles, 60 runs and 62 RBIs in 104 games. He was an All-Star for the third time. He retired after that. It remains puzzling why he never got to spend a full season at AAA and failed to get at least a look at the big league level.