Here Come the Kids

With the shaky performance of everybody down in the bullpen, and now with Wagner's injury, Minaya really needed to deal for an arm, but he obviously felt the price was too high. Now Eddie Kunz is going to be thrown into the fire. The 22-year-old made his debut yesterday, and threw a scoreless inning. The 6' 6" Kunz was the 42nd overall pick in the 2007 draft. He had a 2.79 ERA with 27 saves in 44 games in Binghamton this year. His fastball can reach the mid-90s and he throws a sinker and slider as well. Some see him as the heir to Wagner. The Mets' biggest need in the bullpen is a legitimate eighth-inning set-up guy. It may be too much to ask of Kunz to fill that role. Some people point to Joba Chamberlain, who came up and had instant success in that role, but Kunz doesn't have the same dominating stuff as Chamberlain. His 43 K's in 48.1 innings in AA are good but not blow-you-away impressive. Let's see if he can have any success at the big-league level before handing him a late-inning role. Jerry Manuel has announced that Dan Murphy and Nick Evans will be platooning in left for the foreseeable future, with Fernando Tatis sliding over to right and Endy Chavez moving back to the bench. Murphy is a hitting prospect without a position. He's played third, second, first and left in the minors, though he hasn't played any of them well. Taken in the 13th round in 2006, the 23-year-old was hitting .308 with 13 homers, 67 RBIs and 14 stolen bases in Binghamton so far this year. He made an outstanding leaping catch in his debut on Saturday, so maybe he can be competent enough in left to keep his bat in the lineup. Evans has had a few good games here and there in his two stints with the big club this year, but mainly has struggled. He's hitting .224 with no home runs and three RBIs in 49 at bats, though he's hitting .296 with a .367 OBP against lefties. The next call up is sure to be starting pitcher Jonathon Niese. With Maine on the DL, the Mets will need another starter for at least one game, and all signs point to Niese getting the nod. Almost all the rumored deadline deals that never happened included Niese's name. The left-hander was the Mets seventh-round selection in the 2005 draft. He was 6-7 with a 3.04 ERA and 1.30 WHIP in AA Binghamton. After being promoted to New Orleans, he's pitched one game and threw seven innings, only allowing one run. We may see the likes of Livan Hernandez or Freddy Garcia yet, but Niese will surely get a shot. The kids are here sooner than expected. They may have been rushed but it's out of necessity. Looking at the big picture, it's always better for a team to have home-grown talent on the roster, and as a fan those types of players are more fun to root for because you feel they are "our" players. With Murphy, Evans, Kunz and Niese (and you can throw Argenis Reyes' name in there too) here or soon to be here, the future is now. And if Fernando Martinez can ever get healthy, maybe we'll see him this year too.