Adopted: Eddie Kunz

[willpie]

I've been meaning to do this for a while. Today seems like a good day.
Eddie's from Oregon, I'm from Oregon. Now we both live on the east coast and pull for the Mets. We're practically the same guy, if you factor out age, salary, and physical fitness. So I'll take him under my wing.

[willpie]

Eddie didn't exactly take professional baseball by storm last season, posting a 6.75 ERA in 12.0 IP at Brooklyn. As a sports parent, I feel secure calling that statistically insignificant sample size. He did whiff 9 batters in those same 12 innings, which ain't bad. Also, his OSU Beavers won back-to-back College World Series.
This year at Bingo, he's got 15 saves with a less-ugly 4.13 ERA and a more-ugly 1.59 WHIP.
I vaguely recall an article about Billy Wagner taking him under his wing at spring training, but I can't find it. I wonder just how many wings my boy can fit under at once. I reckon he's likely to get slightly more mileage out of Billy's than mine, though, if it comes down to one wing at a time.

[willpie]

Article in the post has my boy's name being kicked around as a possible call-up if the big club needs a bullpen arm.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/07152008/sports/mets/amazin_plans_120019.htm

[Benjamin Grimm]

How do you pronounce his name? Does it rhyme with "spoons" or "buns"?

[willpie]

Saith John Sickels in his recent review of his Mets prospect rankings from last season:
6) Eddie Kunz, RHP, Grade B
3.00 ERA with 38/23 K/BB in 45 innings for Binghamton, 26 saves. Strong ground ball ratio, looks like he should be ready to help in the pen soon.


Good stuff.
http://www.minorleagueball.com/2008/7/29/581798/top-20-new-york-mets-prosp

(Also, I've been pronouncing his name like buns, but I can't seem to find a definitive ruling on the matter.)

[Frayed Knot]

I've been going with 'Koonz' but I have no idea if that's correct or not.


I don't know anywhere that has split stats for minor leaguers, but I look at it this way:
- the stats from your mid-June post:
... he's got 15 saves with a less-ugly 4.13 ERA and a more-ugly 1.59 WHIP
are a whole lot worse than what they are now: 2.87 & 1.30 (47 IPs), meaning that during the time in between he had to be considerably better still in order to bring the overall average down.

The only problem with his year looks to be too many walks (23 in 47 IPs) but most of that was probably from early in the year also contributing to the high WHiP

Sounds like he might be close to ready.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Frayed Knot wrote: I don't know anywhere that has split stats for minor leaguers.

http://www.minorleaguesplits.com/index.html

I can't figure out how to link to a player page, but all you need to do is type in his last name to view.

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah that's what I was looking for -- and it pretty much confirms what I had been hearing, that he's looked much better of late. In fact, he had a Delgado-like month of July

BA-Against: April = .286; May = .255; June = .209; July = .147

WHiP: April = 1.59; May = 1.61; June = 1.33; July = 0.56

The worst thing about his overall line is the walks (not unusual for a young pro) and even they've dropped recently:
Walks/9: April = 4.76; May = 5.93; June = 5.25; July = .084

And he's yet to surrender a HR this year - certainly a good sign for a sinker-baller

Sounds like he might be close to ready.

[MFS62]

According to Adam Rubin on Metsblog, Kunz has been called up.

I'm not sure if a link to a blog is legitimate verification.

Later

[willpie]

Scoreless inning with the big club last night!
I couldn't be prouder.

[willpie]

Also, Gary Cohen says "Koonz". I figure he's got better info on the matter then I do.

[willpie]

Sent down to New Orleans. Had to make room for Ayala.
I want to scream at someone for not giving my boy a fair shot. Now I know how psycho little league parents are made.

[willpie]

Word on the street is my boy will be joining the big club when the rosters expand.
The other word on the street is that he's looking more like a ROOGY than the surefire closer they had in mind when they drafted him.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

After a rough April (8.83 ERA over 17.1 innings, with 9K/16 BB and a WHIP hovering just around 2.00), Rusty got moved to the starting rotation in AA Binghamton in a last-ditch effort to get some value out of him.

And-- zum Teufel-- it's been working, sorta. He's put up a 3.14 ERA and 1.33 WHIP in 5 starts, upping his K-rate and cutting his walk rate almost in half... topped with last night's 7 2/3 inning, 4-hit, no-run mastery of the Richmond Rockies.

Only thing is... the GB went with everything else (from 60% of his outs to 38%). Is he working more up in the zone? Is this temporary, or is he becoming a different pitcher? Is that pitcher John Maine?

[Guest themetfairy]

Eddie was the winning pitcher in relief tonight as the B-Mets defeated the Thunder in Trenton.