Tribe Report

Matt LaPorta interview

By James Pete | July 21st, 2008

Erik SanInocencio, former senior scribe at MVN’s Tampa Bay Rays site formerly known as Ray’s Anatomy (currently Outs Per Swing) and current contributer to the MVN Outsiders podcasts, recently sent me this interview he did with newly acquired Akron Aeros’ left-fielder Matt LaPorta. For those of you living under a rock, LaPorta was recently the main piece in the trade that sent CC Sabathia to the Milwaukee Brewers.

The interview mainly focuses on the craziness that has been the life of LaPorta since about two weeks before the deal. According to LaPorta, he heard about the news a couple of weeks before it actually happened, but didn’t focus too much on the rumors. He also didn’t think too much about getting pulled from the start for his AA game the night he was dealt. According to LaPorta, he heard about being traded to the Indians from the media before the Brewers’ organization. That’s interesting to me since the Brewers’ organization seems to talk to writer Tom Hardicourt every five minutes or so. He also reported that he didn’t get back his missing luggage until this past Saturday. You have to love the airlines.

It was interesting listening to LaPorta talk about how he seemed like just another minor league player a couple of weeks ago, to now, where he literally became the player spokesman for the Olympic Team. Apparently, there was a conference call in which Olympic Team GM Bob Watson, Olympic Team Manager Davey Johnson and Olympic Team Player Matt LaPorta all took part in. Talk about hitting the big time.

When LaPorta mentioned his new roommate Wes Hodges, he referred to him as “My old buddy.” He also talked about where Indians management believes might be his position in the future by saying, “I think they’re pleased with the progress in the outfield.”

SanInocencio also contributes to Baseball Digest Daily, which covers major and minor league news, statistical analysis, and minor league prospect evaluations. It just so happens that Baseball Digest Daily also hosts a blog for LaPorta. You can probably make the rest of the connection yourself.

You can find the complete interview at blogtalkradio.com, by clicking here.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 2:46 pm and is filed under Erik Saninocencio, Davey Johnson, Bob Watson, Matt LaPorta, Cleveland Indians, C.C. Sabathia, Milwaukee Brewers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.