Matthew Paul Riley (born August 2, 1979) was an American former

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

. He played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) for the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. As one of the American League's eight charter ...

and the Texas Rangers.

Baseball career

He attended

Sacramento City College Sacramento City College (SCC) is a public community college in Sacramento, California. SCC is part of the Los Rios Community College District and had an enrollment of 25,307 in 2009. It is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community ...

. Riley was drafted by the

in the third round of the draft. He dominated for the

Delmarva Shorebirds The Delmarva Shorebirds are a Minor League Baseball team based in Salisbury, Maryland. They are members of the Carolina League and the Single-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. Their home games are played at Arthur W. Perdue Stadium. The Shor ...

of the

South Atlantic League The South Atlantic League, often informally called the Sally League, is a Minor League Baseball league with teams predominantly in states along the Atlantic coast of the United States from New York to Georgia. A Class A league for most of its ...

at age 18, having an

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

of 1.19 and 136 strikeouts in 83 innings pitched. It was there that his curveball started becoming known as one of the best in the Orioles' organization at the time. He had similar success with the

Frederick Keys The Frederick Keys are a collegiate summer baseball team of the MLB Draft League. The Keys are based in Frederick, Maryland. The franchise is named for "Star-Spangled Banner" writer Francis Scott Key, a native of Frederick County. A new team masc ...

of the

Carolina League The Carolina League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated along the Atlantic Coast of the United States since 1945. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 unti ...

and the Bowie Baysox of the Double-A Eastern League in . He earned a callup to the Orioles in 1999, and though his ERA in three starts there was 7.36, he was still highly regarded by the Orioles due to his minor-league achievements that year. '' Baseball America'' listed him as the Orioles' top prospect in both 1999 and . However, in 2000, he made only two starts for the Rochester Red Wings (then the Orioles' Triple-A affiliate), giving up 11

earned run In baseball, an earned run is any run that was fully enabled by the offensive team's production in the face of competent play from the defensive team. Conversely, an unearned run is a run that would not have been scored without the aid of an erro ...

s in 7 innings. He spent the rest of that season and the season recovering from his first Tommy John surgery. He returned to playing in , but with little success. He went 4-10 at Bowie, with an ERA of 6.34. He showed signs of improvement in , going a combined 9-4 for Bowie and the Orioles' new Triple-A team in Ottawa and earning another callup to the major leagues, where he earned his first career win and had a 1.80 ERA in two starts. The season was the first season that he began in the majors, but he struggled there. In 14 appearances (13 starts), he logged a 3-4 record and a 5.62 ERA, and he was also sent back to Ottawa for ten starts. Finally, in , the Orioles traded him to the Texas Rangers during spring training for Ramon Nivar. He was able to play briefly in the major leagues for Texas, but as a one-out middle reliever rather than a starter. He accumulated an ERA of 9.95 over seven games and was then sent down to the Triple-A

Oklahoma RedHawks Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New M ...

. In July 2005, he had his second Tommy John surgery and missed the rest of the 2005 season. While attempting to come back from that surgery, he retore his ulnar collateral ligament and had to have a third Tommy John surgery on his left elbow. In , Riley played for the Las Vegas 51s and

Jacksonville Suns The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League (IL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins. They are located in Jacksonville, Florida, and are named for shrimp caught in the area. The team pla ...

in the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...

minor league system. Riley was released by the Dodgers on July 24, . After not playing baseball in 2009, Riley played for two independent league teams in 2010 — the

Orange County Flyers The Fullerton Flyers were a professional baseball team based in Fullerton, California, in the United States. They were an independent franchise, not affiliated with either Major League Baseball ''or'' Minor League Baseball. The team played from ...

and the

York Revolution The York Revolution is an American professional minor-league baseball team based in York, Pennsylvania. It is a member of the North Division of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, an independent "partner league" of Major League Baseba ...

. He then retired from the game.

Personal life

Matt married Tiffany Hayward on January 14, 2006. They have 2 daughters together and reside in

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

References

External links

, o
The Baseball Cube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Riley, Matt 1979 births Living people Algodoneros de Guasave players American expatriate baseball players in Mexico American expatriate baseball players in Canada Arizona League Rangers players Baltimore Orioles players Baseball players from Contra Costa County, California Bowie Baysox players Delmarva Shorebirds players Frederick Keys players Jacksonville Suns players Las Vegas 51s players Leones del Caracas players American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Major League Baseball pitchers Oklahoma RedHawks players Orange County Flyers players Ottawa Lynx players Sportspeople from Antioch, California Rochester Red Wings players Sacramento City Panthers baseball players Texas Rangers players York Revolution players