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Making adjustments

NILES – Mahoning Valley Scrappers manager Travis Fryman has a rule he follows during the beginning of the minor league season.

As he and the rest of his coaching staff welcome in a new crop of draft picks, Fryman makes sure he doesn’t throw too much at them too quickly. In fact, he doesn’t change anything for one month.

“We have what we call a 30-day waiting period with new draft picks,” Fryman said. “They’ve been successful. We don’t want to come in here and change you. We’re observing and watching.”

Scrappers second baseman Mark Mathias understands Fryman’s thinking, but Mathias, the Cleveland Indians third-round pick from this year’s draft, couldn’t help himself when he heard something from Jim Rickon, the Indians’ organizational hitting coordinator who was in town to talk to the Scrappers.

“I made a couple minor adjustments to my swing,” said Mathias, who went 2 for 4 with a double and an RBI in the Scrappers’ 5-2 loss to Williamsport on Monday. “Just from working with Jim (Rickon), our hitting instructor. Getting into a more athletic position to hit and getting ready earlier definitely helped me out a lot. I know my timing was off for the first week. I was late on a lot of pitches. I got under a lot of pitches, so just getting in an athletic spot to hit early and not getting beat inside was the main thing for me.”

His ability to take so much from a short conversation that Rickon had with the team is rare, according to Fryman. Players coming to the Scrappers (3-7) are generally coming of an impressive college career, and Fryman said most of them are reluctant to make changes.

Apparently the 6-foot, 200-pound Mathias, who led Cal Poly with a .356 average during his senior season, isn’t one of them.

“When someone has insight for me, I always take it to heart,” he said. “I take it and I do it.”

Mathias, 20, had three of his five hits on the season in the last two days. His average is still under .200, but numbers mean little when a team is just 10 games into a season. The focus is on improving and adjusting to a new brand of baseball.

“Those were the first couple of balls he really squared up, so that’s good to see,” Fryman said. “It’s encouraging. Our hitting coordinator is in town, and he gave a little overview of some our core things that we teach offensively here. (Mathias) just took that conversation and made some little adjustments on his own in the cage today and was able to carry it out on the field. It wasn’t something we did. It was something he did in response from someone just communicating information to him today. That’s indicative of a young man that listens and has the ability to make adjustments.”

Now if only the rest of the Scrappers were such quick learners.

Mahoning Valley, which lost its fifth straight, had only seven hits and made several defensive miscues. The Crosscutters, on the other hand, continued the best start in team history by moving to 10-0. The good thing, from Fryman’s perspective, is that wins and losses aren’t the main concern. The focus is on developing players, and he sees one already in Mathias.

“That’s a real encouraging sign that he’s a kid that can pick up on some things quick and can take them onto the field,” he said. “That was a real bright spot for me.”

There weren’t many others on a cold and windy day at Eastwood Field.

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