Rumor Mill: Matt den Decker

The word on the street is that Matt den Decker has signed with the Mets and will report on Thursday to St. Lucie. However, I'm not that excited about his signing. I saw him in one at bat in the College World Series. He struck out and looked overwhelmed by the pitcher. He was better defensively: he made an amazing catch in that series. Overall in the College World Series, he went 1 for 5 against UCLA, striking out three times, and 0 for 2 against Florida State.

This past season with the Florida Gators, he hit .352. In 2009, he hit .296; in 2008, he hit .333; in 2007, he hit .235.

Here are more of his 2010 stats: His slugging average was .563. Of his 23 extra base hits, 13 were homers, so he has some power. In the field, in 62 games he made just two errors while he had 154 putouts. He also led the Gators in multiple hit games with 28 (including a 5 for 5 game), tied for second in multiple RBI games with 11, and had the longest hitting streak (16 games).

He finished his college career with 33 homers.

He even pitched in a game. In 2008 he started a game and pitched 2.2 innings.

On the negative side, his strikeouts noticeably exceeded his walks. He struck out 157 times in 844 at bats during his four Gator seasons, or about once in every five at bats; whereas, he walked 114 times, or about one in every seven at bats.