Matt Gaski

Matthew Alexander Gaski

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 185 lb.

• School University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University of Florida
• High School Northwest Guilford High School

• Born May 12, 1986 in Lakeland, FL USA

BR minors page

Biographical Information

Matt Gaski played in the US and Germany. He is the son of college coach Mike Gaski.

Matt hit .301 as a high school sophomore, .372 as a junior and .392 as a senior. As a college freshman, he went 4 for 11 as a backup at 3B to Brandon McArthur at Florida; he played 30 games, mostly as a defensive sub. He played in five games in the 2005 College World Series and made a nice play to force out Eli Iorg in a win over Tennessee. He also drew a walk from J. Brent Cox to load the bases in a loss to Texas. He saw regular time at 2B for the Gators in 2006 but hit only .227/.325/.245.

He transferred to UNC Greensboro for 2007 to play for his father. He batted .291/.403/.363 with 54 runs in 60 games. He tied Brandon Waring for third in the Southern Conference with 42 walks. As a senior, he produced at a .327/.422/.440 clip with 61 runs in 60 contests. He was named second-team All-Conference at SS.

The San Diego Padres took him in the 34th round of the 2008 amateur draft, one round after Dan Robertson. He hit .216/.364/.261 with 20 walks, 19 runs and 11 RBI in 31 games for the AZL Padres, fielding .839 at 3B (23 G) and also playing 2B and 1B. Gaski signed with the New York Mets for 2009 and split the year between the Brooklyn Cyclones (.291/.371/.316 in 24 G) and Savannah Sand Gnats (.389/.421/.444 in 10 G).

Gaski signed with Germany's Heidenheim Heidekoepfe for 2011, replacing Chris Beck at SS. He did not reach Beck's offensive performance by any means, batting .223/.287/.345 with 19 runs and 11 steals (in 13 tries) in 24 games, while fielding .942. He tied Simon Gühring for 4th in stolen bases in the southern Bundesliga-1 and was second in assists (89). He hit .292/.346/.333 with 4 runs in 5 games in the 2011 European Cup, fielded .939 and was caught in both of his steal attempts. He scored the winning run in a 7-6 upset of Unipol Bologna, singling off Victor Moreno in the 12th inning and coming home on a Gühring hit; he went 3 for 6 with two RBI that day. He tied Dennis Ribbens and Sidney de Jong for 8th in the Cup's Amsterdam phase in hits.

Sources

• UNCG bio
• Baseball Cube
• Bundesliga
• 2011 European Cup