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At the Lohud Mets Blog, Josh Thomson noticed that Eddie Kunz (of the 9.72 ERA in 8.1 IP) is having a rough time in the AFL, especially against lefties.
The Mets clearly felt Kunz was more than just a situational righty, but he hasn’t looked capable of reaching Jerry Manuel’s “crossover guy” status. Lefties have batted .500 against Kunz in the AFL (6 for 12 with two walks), after batting .500 against him (4 for 8 ) in the bigs.
Granted, this is a small sample size,…
Yes, Josh, you’re right, that’s an absurdly small sample size on which to form judgments about a player’s future role. On the other hand, a larger sample size supports Mr. Thomson’s point. So lets make it a bigger sample size and go back to the regular season where Kunz showed a significant platoon split.
Eddie Kunz 2008 AA L-R Splits
| AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS | BB | SO | AB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs. Left | .253 | .352 | .316 | .668 | 12 | 14 | 79 |
| vs. Right | .196 | .295 | .227 | .521 | 13 | 29 | 97 |
I’ve written about Kunz’s issues versus lefties repeatedly. In July, I quoted a scout saying of Kunz, “With that arm slot, lefties are always going to give him trouble.”
More recently, in my AFL preview with a fall assignment for all of the Mets farmhands, I wrote, “Kunz – … must also develop a weapon to lefties beyond his sinker.”
Any questions?
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Agreed, Toby.
What Eddie has going for him is that he throws a heavy fastball that keeps the ball in the ballpark. That said that arm angle leaves him open to lefties. Not sure a slider would work either. Perhaps a change is the only thing he could us (that a better placed fastball).
I’m not completely sold on Kunz. I’ve seen him throw on TV and live and his fastball seems awfully straight, which concerns me because better hitters will learn to to zero in on it.
I’m hoping for good things from Kunz, though. My hope is he has a good spring, barely misses making the team, goes to AAA to start and then is up by Memorial Day to help out. Bu that’s wishful thinking.
His fastball is anything but straight man. That’s why it’s described as a heavy sinker. He just needs something else to throw against lefties, whether it’s a change or a splitter or better command of his slide piece.
Your last paragraph is an optimistic, but hardly unrealistic scenario.
Not to discount your point Toby, but is a .668 OPS in the “Large Sample Size” really the end of the world? I realize the OBP against is high, but he’s been able to limit the damage really well as it’s almost entirely singles against him. I kinda feel like we have a bit of over-analyzation going on here.
I realize his numbers are from the minors and not the majors, but there are several “Crossover” pitchers with similar differential in their splits. K-Rod this season is one example (.344 OBP/.680 OPS vs Lefties), Huston Street has always had a fairly large differential in his splits (.710 OPS vs Lefties). Yet Both are successful “Crossover” pitchers because they are extremely good against the Righties they do face, and can at least limit the damage against the Lefties.
Nevermind that if Kunz were to make the team, he would probably be doing so in middle relief and we could manage his workload to limit overexposure to Lefties until he is ready for that larger role, not necessarily making him a specialist, but there’s no reason he can’t be used in a way so he faces 60-65% Righties.
Sure, you’re right, a .668 OPS in AA versus lefties is certainly not the end of the world. My point was that Kunz has shown a large platoon split all the way through.
The danger of comparing Street and K-Rod’s MLB L/R to Kunz’s AA L/R should be fairly obvious. The first two pitchers were pitching against the best hitters in the world. Kunz was not. MLB lefty hitters (and righties) are much better than those in AA.
I’m well aware that MLB competition is far better then AA competition, my point was simply that if Kunz continues to develop enough to just maintain those splits in the big leagues, that he can be a successful “Crossover” pitcher, despite that he’ll always probably be hit harder by Lefties.
That’s fair. “Maintaining” will be tough.
If Kunz can help the Mets next year it will be a middle guy, situational righty anyway so I don’t see this as too much of an issue for later 2009. He does need to find a way to get big league lefties out a little more than half the time though, which will be hard for him to work on if he is with the Mets for the majority of next year.
I only hope that he can be a useful roogy when they call on him in 2009, and a more dominant guy in 2010 and forward.
Considering that Feliciano and Schoeneweis probably aren’t going anywhere it wouldn’t be the worst thing to have Kunz take Joe Smiths role with Smith getting more of a shot as a crossover guy. (or just joining Smith in that roogy role)
too many specialists destroyed our bullpen this year.
you can really only have 1 loogy and 1 roogy if you want to have a good bullpen.