Kunz struggling in the desert

October

At one time Eddie Kunz looked like a bullpen arm the Mets needed, but you had to wonder after a so-so debut in the majors and a poor September in the minors. Wonder more now. Kunz has continued to look shaky in Arizona. He was charged with a blown save in the Rising Stars Showcase on Saturday, eight days after he was tagged for eight earned runs while pitching 1/3 of an inning for the Saguaros.

So far, Kunz has posted a 12.79 ERA in Peoria, but the mark was clearly inflated by that one disasterous outing. Forget about it. What should absolutely alarm Met fans is his inability to dominate whatsoever in the AFL for the second year in a row.

This fall, Kunz has pitched 7.0 innings (if you count the Rising Stars Showcase) in eight outings. In just two of those appearances did he survive the inning unscathed. In fact, he allowed two baserunners or more in five of the other six outings. Not good.

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, but you have to be worried the criticisms thrown the Mets’ way when they drafted Kunz in 2007 may prove to be true. The knock on him is that he projected to be more middle reliever than closer. Check out this draft report from 2007.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 12:45 pm by Josh Thomson.
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One Response to “Kunz struggling in the desert”

Metsfan October 27th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Sure, one year in professional ball tells all. You sure know nothing about baseball.

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