GaryMrMets
10-30-2006, 06:39 PM
http://blogs.nydailynews.com/mets/archives/2006/10/brandon_nall_a_kid_to_be_recko.php
October 30, 2006
Brandon Nall: 'A Kid to be Reckoned With'
Sidearm reliever Brandon Nall joined the Mets' contingent with Mesa in the Arizona Fall League 10 days ago, after Philip Humber (shoulder) and Steve Schmoll (hamstring) had to withdraw. Nall spent three years at LSU, but he missed two of those years recovering from surgery to repair a torn labrum and went undrafted.
"I had a terrible tear, and it took me two years of rehab, really, to get it back to where I needed it," Nall said. "My whole LSU career was an injury. I was there three years and hurt two of the three. The third year I was there I was trying to figure it out again."
Nall, 24, made his AFL debut Saturday, when he tossed a scoreless inning against the Phoenix Desert Dogs and received credit for the win, though he did hit one batter and toss another pitch to the backstop. He went 5-5 with a 2.91 ERA in 38 relief appearances for low-A Hagerstown, and pitched four innings for Double-A Binghamton at the end of the regular season.
Here's Mets minor-league pitching coordinator Rick Waits talking about how the Mets found the 6-4 Nall:
"During the middle of the season in 2005, a very good friend of mine, a scout from the Northeast, calls me and says, ‘You ought to see this kid. He went to LSU. He didn’t get drafted. He’s throwing the ball great. He’s just a kid who was missed.’ So I called our top scout and asked him where he was. He said, ‘As a matter of fact I’m right around here.’ He went in to watch Brandon Nall pitch, and Brandon Nall threw a seven-inning no-hitter that night and topped out at like 91, 92 mph. And obviously in the next two days we signed him. He was pitching with a summer, semi-pro team in Pennsylvania. How lucky can you get in a lot of ways? The night that you needed to have a great performance he got it.
He came in and there’s a lot of things he needed to learn, just getting in the routine of being a pro pitcher. 2005 was a year of getting adjusted. He had some great games and he had some terrible games. When he came out in 2006 in Hagerstown and then came to Double-A, he really started putting together all of his pitches on both sides of the plate. He’s a kid to be reckoned with."
http://blogs.nydailynews.com/mets/archives/nall.gif
October 30, 2006
Brandon Nall: 'A Kid to be Reckoned With'
Sidearm reliever Brandon Nall joined the Mets' contingent with Mesa in the Arizona Fall League 10 days ago, after Philip Humber (shoulder) and Steve Schmoll (hamstring) had to withdraw. Nall spent three years at LSU, but he missed two of those years recovering from surgery to repair a torn labrum and went undrafted.
"I had a terrible tear, and it took me two years of rehab, really, to get it back to where I needed it," Nall said. "My whole LSU career was an injury. I was there three years and hurt two of the three. The third year I was there I was trying to figure it out again."
Nall, 24, made his AFL debut Saturday, when he tossed a scoreless inning against the Phoenix Desert Dogs and received credit for the win, though he did hit one batter and toss another pitch to the backstop. He went 5-5 with a 2.91 ERA in 38 relief appearances for low-A Hagerstown, and pitched four innings for Double-A Binghamton at the end of the regular season.
Here's Mets minor-league pitching coordinator Rick Waits talking about how the Mets found the 6-4 Nall:
"During the middle of the season in 2005, a very good friend of mine, a scout from the Northeast, calls me and says, ‘You ought to see this kid. He went to LSU. He didn’t get drafted. He’s throwing the ball great. He’s just a kid who was missed.’ So I called our top scout and asked him where he was. He said, ‘As a matter of fact I’m right around here.’ He went in to watch Brandon Nall pitch, and Brandon Nall threw a seven-inning no-hitter that night and topped out at like 91, 92 mph. And obviously in the next two days we signed him. He was pitching with a summer, semi-pro team in Pennsylvania. How lucky can you get in a lot of ways? The night that you needed to have a great performance he got it.
He came in and there’s a lot of things he needed to learn, just getting in the routine of being a pro pitcher. 2005 was a year of getting adjusted. He had some great games and he had some terrible games. When he came out in 2006 in Hagerstown and then came to Double-A, he really started putting together all of his pitches on both sides of the plate. He’s a kid to be reckoned with."
http://blogs.nydailynews.com/mets/archives/nall.gif