Matt Tupman

Matthew David Tupman

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 180 lb.
• Schools Plymouth State College, University of Massachusetts-Lowell
• High School Concord (NH) High School
• Debut May 18, 2008
• Final Game May 18, 2008
• Born November 25, 1979 in Concord, NH USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Matt Tupman played professionally from 2002 to 2009 and again in 2011.

Tupman hit .414 as a college freshman at Plymouth University in 2000. Moving to the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, he batted .363 with 8 HR and 50 RBI as a junior. He was a second-team Division II All-American pick. He also helped his school to the 2002 Division II College World Series, where he hit .389 with a couple homers to make the All-Tournament team. He was selected by the Kansas City Royals in the 9th round of the 2002 amateur draft.

Tupman batted .271/.364/.347 in his pro debut with the 2002 Spokane Indians. In 2003, he played for the Burlington Bees and batted .223/.288/.304; the one bright spot was that he tied for the lead among Midwest League backstops with 8 double plays.

Tupman had a fine 2004 with the Wilmington Blue Rocks, producing at a .300/.361/.400 clip. Had he qualified, he would have tied for 6th in the Midwest League in batting average. He led MWL catchers with 606 putouts. In 2005, Matt batted .263/.355/.334 for the Wichita Wranglers. His 82 assists paced Texas League catchers.

In 2006, Tupman hit .305/.425/.364 in 73 games for Wichita and .247/.321/.247 in 21 for the Omaha Royals. Tupman was Team USA's third-string catcher for the 2006 COPABE Olympic Qualification Tournament behind Kurt Suzuki and Jarrod Saltalamacchia. He was 0 for 2 with a walk in his limited action as the US qualified for the 2008 Olympics.

Tupman was with Omaha for all of 2007, batting .281/.361/.344 as he continued to show good OBP skills but little power. That winter, he hit .293/.322/.353 for the Tigres del Licey as they finished second in the Dominican League. He remained with them for the 2008 Caribbean Series, hitting .364/.391/.409 and being named to the Series All-Star team. Tupman had a big two-run double in the victory over Licey's archrival, the Aguilas Cibaeñas. He was the only Licey position player to be named to the All-Star team despite their winning the Series.

Tupman began the 2008 season on the Royals active roster due to Miguel Olivo's suspension. He was sent down to Omaha before appearing in a game. At the time, he joined other former Royals catchers Duane Dewey, Russ Stephans, and Cesar King as players that were on the active roster but never appeared in a game. However, he was an emergency call-up on May 16th after John Buck's wife delivered twins a few days early. He got a hit in his first MLB at bat on May 18th, pinch-hitting for Jimmy Gobble and singling to right against Kevin Gregg. It was his only career appearance in the big leagues. He hit .229 in the minors that year.

He played for Omaha and Mobile Bay Bears of the Arizona Diamondbacks system in 2009, hitting a combined .256/.297/.313 in 59 games. After not playing in 2010, he returned to professional baseball in 2011, hitting .268/.302/.380 with four home runs in 57 games for the independent Lancaster Barnstormers.

Sources

• 2003-2007 Baseball Almanacs
• 2007 Royals Media Guide
• MILB.com

Further Reading

• Anthony Castrovince: "They had 1 career AB, 1 career hit. Nothing else.", mlb.com, April 11, 2019. [1]

Related Sites

• Matt Tupman at the SABR Bio Project