Meet one of the Mets best young pitching prospects, Brant Rustich.  We cover his injured past, a healthy present, and his potential future role.

            The Mets drafted UCLA closer Brant Rustich with their fourth pick overall, and their second pick in the second round of the June 2007 amateur draft.  Following a tough college season in which he lost the closer’s job at UCLA, while going 3-2 with a 6.67 ERA, he was nearly untouchable in his first professional season.  First in Kingsport and then Brooklyn, he was a combined 3-0 with a 1.57 ERA in 23 innings between the two stops.

            The 6’2, 225 lber credits better health for his improvement, which was driven by better control.  A tendon in his middle finger, which he originally ruptured all the way back in 2005, didn’t fully recover until this summer.  After walking 20 batters in 29.2 innings in 2007 at UCLA, he walled just two in 23 innings during the regular minor league season.  On the heels of his fine professional debut, Baseball America named Rustich as the #6 prospect in the Mets system, and noted that his fastball sat at 93-97.

            The Rustich I’ve seen in Hawaii hasn’t been quite as electrifying as the Baseball America scouting report in their top 10 write up suggested he would be.  When I’ve seen Rustich in Hawaii, he’s sat at 91-92, hitting 95.  However, to be fair, I also saw him as he was battling a nasty flu bug that kept him out of action for a week and a half.  Again, Baseball America wrote of a slider at 84-87, when I’ve seen him, it’s been at the lower end of the range, mostly 84 with a little 85.  BA also simply made a mistake calling his third pitch a splitter – it’s a changeup.  Nonetheless, I like Rustich as a prospect, whether he’s a starter or a reliever.

            Rustich’s future role, both in 2008, and beyond is a little uncertain.  There are some within the organization who see him as a potential starter, while there are some who envision him as a future bullpen ace.  He would have more value, working more innings, as a starter than as a reliever.  However, to succeed as a starter, he’ll need his changeup, which as we discuss, is surely his third pitch.   

            I’d like to see Rustich begin 2008 as a starter at St. Lucie.  Even if his future is in the bullpen, the extra innings and challenges as a starter will help him develop more quickly and more fully. 

            Mets Minor League Ops Director Adam Wogan will be the next interview in this series.  I should post that Wednesday. 

 

 

TH: Brant, how are you doing?

BR: Good.  Enjoying Hawaii.  My girlfriend just came to town, so I think it just got a little bit better.

 

TH: Now this league just got back from three days off.  What’d you do over those three days?

BR: Actually, I didn’t do much of anything, really.  I went to the beach one of those days.  I was just getting ready for my girlfriend to come to town.  I was just resting and relaxing.  …There was a lot of rain over those three days, so there wasn’t much to do.  I found myself in my condo.

 

TH: Did you clean your room for her?

BR: Ha.  I was getting ready…we got a hotel.  Did some laundry, getting my stuff together for that. 

 

TH: Now it’s been a long season for you, started at UCLA, the regular season starts in January, but fall ball starts in November, drafted, minor league season: Kingsport, Brooklyn, Hawaii….that’s 12 months of baseball.

BR: Yeah, it’s been a long time.  It’s starting to wear on me a little bit, but I really want to finish strong here.  I don’t want to think about that too much.  Sometimes I get asked, “are you tired?” and to be honest, yeah, I’m a little tired, it’s been long.  My season has been longer than some of the other players…It’s been almost over a year.

 

TH: How about that college season at UCLA?  You start off as the team’s closer, then end up starting a few games in the Pac-10, rough Pac-10 season for you, but the team picks it up late, an incredible late-season run, makes their first super-regionals in seven years.  Talk about that last college season for you, and your last college season.

BR: It’s one I really don’t like thinking too much about.  It was rough on me.  I was coming off injury.  That was the toughest, I’ve ever had to be, pitching in my life.  I’ve never had to deal with so much …pressure.  I knew the draft was kinda big.  And there was always a lot of analysis on me pitching.  Going out there and trying to stay healthy, and trying to perform at the highest [level], but not being capable of doing what I’m capable of doing, just because I wasn’t healthly.  That was the tough part.  You know, college, you gotta win there.  Our head coach, I understand that, and so he didn’t always give me the opportunity late in the year, to do so, because I wasn’t feeling well. It’s tough.  It’s a lot different than pro ball.  In pro ball you’re treated differently.  I had a little resting period, between the college season, and pro ball.  And all of a sudden, my injury, which was my finger, turned the corner.  And all summer, I had no pain at all in my professional career and that’s kinda changed everything.  I’ve been able to throw a lot more, worked out, played catch more.  I’ve worked on my skills better.  My command has sharpened so much just because I’m not out there throwing in pain. ..  It’s night and day.  It’s been completely different for me.  Pitching all of a sudden became fun again.  It was just like I was a kid again, and pitching and going out there and competing rather than having an injury or pain on your mind.  Just going out there and competing, and attacking hitters and having fun – I didn’t get to experience that in college.  It was a shame being that it was my last year, but now that I’m a professional I don’t have to really dwell on that and can move forward. 

 

TH: Correct me if I’m wrong, that was all the way back in 2005 that you first ruptured that tendon [on your right middle finger]…

BR: Yeah

TH: Then you had surgery, and missed a whole college season.  First of all, how do you rupture a tendon?

BR: That’s a good question.  I’ve seen only a few injuries – I know [Joel] Zumaya had it, Adam Eaton, a couple big leaguers, and myself.  Me and Adam Eaton went to the same surgeon.  I originally kinda strained it, and ended up getting a cortisone injection at UCLA.  That was my true junior season, going into that and I wanted to get ready because I was a top prospect coming off of Cape Cod and performing really, really well. So I got a cortisone injection, I came back, and was feeling great, and I was warming up to go into a game.  And I threw a fastball and felt like a bolt of lightning went through my finger.  I can’t really describe it.  It was like a crunching pain.  I knew immediately that I was hurt.  I remember coming back that day, and I knew it - that I wouldn’t be able to pitch again the rest of the year.  My coach, he told me, “wait it out, see what happens, and don’t get surgery yet,… have your hopes up.”  I remember trying to rest it, for, I think it was nine weeks, ten weeks or so.   Before the draft, my junior year draft, came around, I tried throwing again, and it still hurt. I ended up having to get surgery.  I fell to the 13th round, to the Indians, which gave me a good offer, but I decided to come back, because I knew I could perform better than that, that I was worth more than that.  So that was a good decision, coming back.  Of course, coming back from surgery was a lot more difficult than I anticipated.  It took a good solid year to come back from that injury.

 

TH: Now Zumaya needed surgery he said because he was playing Guitar Hero too much.  Were you playing a lot f Guitar Hero, or other video games?

BR: No, I wasn’t.  You know, I think it has nothing to do with that.  I know Zumaya …has a very firm grip on the ball, and I know I do too.  He’s a hard thrower, and I’m a power pitcher.  … I definitely think my cortisone injection had everything to do with my finger rupturing because cortisone has been known to weaken tendons and ligaments.  ….If I was a professional at the time I wouldn’t have got a cortisone injection, because now I know better, but I didn’t know any better at the time and I wanted to be ready for the draft and everything.  So that was a bad mistake on my part.

 

TH: You say you’re having fun now as a professional.  Why?

BR: I think being injury free, being pain free.  The treatment in professional baseball is different.  You’re treated more like a man.  You have a lot of responsibilities, but that’s something I know I can handle.  It’s the way I was raised. I think I’m a pretty responsible person when it comes to off-field stuff and preparing myself everyday to play.  … I enjoy playing games everyday, everyone says it’s a lot better than practice.  It’s a lot of fun.  I know a lot of the players here have been playing the full minor league season, 142 games, and I know they’re all tired, and they talk to me, but I thought it was easier in that 70 games in that short season, than in the 70 games of my college season.  I don’t know if it was because I was pain free, injury free, but I just enjoy playing games everyday.

 

TH: Where would you analyze your arsenal right now?  I’ve seen the fastball from you, and the slider, but haven’t seen much of the changeup. 
BR: Yeah, that’s definitely a pitch I want to work on.  It’s a good pitch.  I’ve had it in the past.  I was starting my sophomore year at UCLA and my head coach worked a lot with me on changeup and it came a long ways in college.  Then I went back to the bullpen, and I didn’t need to use it as much.  I only needed to throw two pitches out of the bullpen.  I had two plus pitches.  When you’re calling pitches, and I know my coach in college was calling a lot of my pitches, but it’s hard to call someone’s third best pitch when they have two plus pitches.  So, I think I’m in that situation right now.  …Lets say I’ve got a hitter, a lefty, in a 2-1 count and a changeup would probably be an ideal pitch for a lefty.  Do I throw my changeup, my third pitch, or do I throw my good slider?  It’s still something I’m working with.  It’s a pitchability thing and confidence thing.  It’s something I’ll work on this next year and something I’m working on here.  I’d like to get it up to the same level as my slider.  If I got three plus pitches I won’t have to worry about anything.  I’m still trying to develop that.  I know if I get that, I’ll be that much closer to the big leagues. 

 

TH: Now obviously that ties into your future role.  As a starter, the changeup is a lot more important.  Out of the bullpen, you can get away with two pitches.  Do you see yourself in the future, as a reliever?  And more importantly, how do the Mets see you?  Have they said, work on that changeup, you’re gonna start next year?  I’ve read different things, but what have you been told?

BR: Well, I’ve been asked that question by the executives, and they’ve asked me whether I want to be a reliever or a starter.  Personally, I’d prefer to be a reliever right now, because I’ve been successful doing that.  Coming off an injury, I don’t know how my body would handle being a starter after being a reliever for a few years.  You know, I’m up for anything.  Whatever the Mets really want to do I’m ok with.  I know that they’re thinking about making me a starter at the beginning of next year to get me some more innings to work on my pitches and work on that changeup.  Coming out of the bullpen, you don’t really use the changeup because you don’t need it.  And you want to do well, put up good numbers you wanna get to the big leagues, and perform well.  You can’t be fooling with pitches.  I know it’s the winter league here, but I’m finding myself not working with too much here, because I want to put up good numbers.  I want to show people what I can do.  If I find myself working on something here and find my ERA is a little inflated, because I’ve been working on something else, some people might not understand that.  ….In a starter’s role, going more than two innings, you’re forced to have to throw that changeup more to be successful.  I think that they might want to do that with me, they might not.  I don’t know.  I’ll be ready for anything come next year.  I’m hoping to go Big League camp and kinda be a reliever there.  I know they need help up there.  I wanna get there as fast as I can and I think relieving would be the fastest route.  ….

 

TH: Now mechanically, how would you analyze yourself?  Beyond the finger, the rest of the body, the full motion.  How do you know when you’re going well, and what’s the most frequent thing you feel, when you say, “that’s not right”? 

BR: I think my delivery has been good.  The Mets haven’t worked too much with me on my delivery.  From the start, they’ve noticed that I’ve had a clean smooth delivery and they don’t want to mess with that too much.  A big part of pitching is the mental side, and that came around with being healthy.  Everything got easier when I got healthy.  Of course, I performed a lot better.  ….Mechanically, it’s just about being consistent with everything.  I think one of the things that separates a minor league pitcher from a major league pitcher is consistency, so I just try to be as consistent as possible.  For a big guy it’s about repetition…

 

TH:You’re a big guy, I can see that.  Did you play any other sports growing up?  Little basketball, little football in your past?

BR: Yeah, I played both in college.  I was quarterback in high school, sorry, in high school, I played basketball and football….

TH: Now I’ve seen some UCLA football games, and I don’t remember seeing you out there.

BR: Ha, ha.  I know.  (Jokingly) I thought about it -. No.  There were some times I saw some UCLA football games where I thought, “Man, I could throw better than that,” but we’ve been turning it around lately.  But I played basketball, football and baseball in high school.  Come my junior year I gave up both basketball and football because I had a scholarship to go to UCLA.  Throwing the football and the baseball was too much on my arm.  The basketball season ended up interfering with the baseball season come winterball.  It was just too much to ask, for me.  I knew baseball was where my future lay.  …Being in high school it was tough.  You know, you’ve got a lot of friends you play football with, play basketball with, and playing the first couple years and when you leave them, it was rough.  It was very hard on me in high school to stop playing those other sports, but looking at it now, it was obviously the right decision. 

 

TH: Now moving forward after this league ends in a couple of weeks, you’ve got your first three months off from baseball in a year.  Big plans for the off-season?

BR: Well, I’m going back home San Diego.  Going back from San Diego and LA.  Spending time with my girlfriend in LA and spending some time with my family in San Diego.  I know for the first month, I won’t even pick up a baseball. I’ll continue working out, that’s one of the reasons I’ll be up in LA.  Probably after the first month, I’ll really pick up workouts, for the final two months before spring training.  Just working out at the UCLA facilities… lotta professional guys work out there it’s always easy to get someone to throw with or even the UCLA catchers are always happy to catch some of the old alumni, so it’s a good place to work out.  I just want to enjoy myself, enjoy the time off and spend time with my family…get ready for next year.

 

TH: Now recently, this morning, actually, Baseball America released their Mets top 10 prospects list.  Do you read this stuff?  Do you know where you rank on it?

BR: No.  Actually, I do check up on it.  I would lie if I said I didn’t, but I didn’t check up on it today.  But I was with my girlfriend all day, and we’ve been kinda busy.  I guess that’s good news.

TH: Well, you’re in the top 10, I’ll let you go read that yourself at some later point.  Thank you for your time.

BR: Thank you very much. 

 

 

Toby Hyde has written Toby’s Mets Minor League Report since 2004.  Please pass this along to friends, family, co-workers, enemies and most importantly Mets fans.  To subscribe to the email newsletter, sign up here: http://groups.google.com/group/mets-minors?hl=en.  Archives are available at http://metsminors.metsblog.com.