Beating the Bushes is counting down to the start of the 2010 baseball season, which kicks off April 4 at Fenway Park when the Yankees take on the Red Sox.
In the second part of my season preview, I’m reviewing Baseball America’s Top 30 prospects for the Mets and Yankees organizations for the upcoming 2010 season.
———-
It’s not often when a player is entering his third full season as a professional baseball player and it can truly be considered a “make-or-break” year.
For Eddie Kunz, however, that’s exactly what the 2010 season is.
The right-hander, who was the Mets’ first over pick in the supplemental first round of the 2007 draft out of Oregon State, has struggled each of the past two seasons in Triple-A. A contributor to two national championship teams out of the bullpen with the Beavers, Kunz has looked lost since getting shelled in a brief call-up to the big leagues in 2008. Last year, in a full season with Triple-A Buffalo, Kunz went 4-5 with a 5.02 ERA, striking out 38 in 61 innnings.
The two most important numbers for Kunz last year, however, were walks (31) and home runs allowed (eight). Both of those numbers will have to improve dramatically in a return trip to Buffalo this year if Kunz wants to ever come close to fulfilling the potential the Mets saw in him when they drafted him.
tbontemps@nypost.com
