Matthew Bruce Mantei [MAN-tie] (born July 7, 1973 in Tampa, Florida) is a former Major League Baseball relief pitcher. In his career, Mantei played with the Florida Marlins, Arizona Diamondbacks and Boston Red Sox. He batted and threw right-handed.

[edit] Career

Mantei had four pitches. He had two fastballs, one of which regularly hit 95 MPH and occasionally hit 100, a sharp curve and an occasional slider. He was also known to throw a knuckleball earlier in his career. Two issues concerning his play were his control and his ability for his arm to stay healthy.

After posting 32 saves in 1999, Mantei was slowed by injuries in 2000 and 2001, when a right-elbow injury ended his season in April and he underwent "Tommy John" ligament replacement surgery.^[1] In 2002 Mantei worked hard to regain his old form. Despite the fact that he missed a month in 2003, he finished strong in the last three months of the season. He had 29 saves while posting a 2.62 ERA.

Mantei missed most of 2004 after a surgery to deal with bone spurs in his shoulder.^[2] In 12 games, he was 0-3 with an 11.81 ERA and four saves. At the end of the season he was signed by the Red Sox. 2005 was yet another injury-plagued season for Mantei, as he only pitched 26.3 innings before being placed on the disabled list for the remainder of the year.^[3] Mantei was invited to the Detroit Tigers spring training camp in 2006 to make a comeback try, but after suffering more arm troubles early in the spring, he left camp and was out of baseball until 2008.^[4]

Mantei threw a bullpen session for the Detroit Tigers on January 11, 2008 and signed a minor league contract with them.^[5] However, after experiencing discomfort in his arm a few games into spring training, he was released and retired on March 4.^[6]

In a ten-year career with Florida, Arizona, and Boston, Mantei owned a 14-18 record with a 4.07 ERA and 93 saves in 322.7 innings. He also compiled a 1.98 strikeout-to-walk ratio (396-to-200) and a 1.39 WHIP.

[edit] See also

• List of Major League Baseball all-time saves leaders

[edit] References

1. ^ "Season Preview". USA Today. February 19, 2002. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/bbw/2002-02-20/2002-02-20-preview-1-6.htm. Retrieved 19 November 2009. 
2. ^ "Back in business". The Boston Globe. February 11, 2005. http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2005/02/11/back_in_business. Retrieved 19 November 2009. 
3. ^ "Red Sox counting on Papelbon". TSN. September 13, 2005. http://www.tsn.ca/mlb/news_story.asp?ID=136171. Retrieved 19 November 2009. 
4. ^ "Family ties bind Mantei to Detroit Tigers, for now". Detroit Free Press. February 16, 2008. http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080216/SPORTS02/80216055. Retrieved 19 November 2009. 
5. ^ "Tigers get Mantei for league minimum $390,000". Detroit Free Press. January 12, 2008. http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080112/SPORTS02/801120370/1050/SPORTS05. Retrieved 19 November 2009. 
6. ^ "Larry Stone Can Blue Jays fly into first?". The Seattle Times. March 9, 2008. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/larrystone/2004270131_stone09.html. Retrieved 19 November 2009. 

[edit] External links

• Baseball Reference (statistics and analysis)
• ESPN (profile and daily update)