Henry Owens

by Charlie Wilmoth on Jul 6, 2006 9:38 PM EDT in News

Anyone find it interesting that the Mets just called up former Pirates minor leaguer Henry Owens? The Mets' announcers are talking about him now. His numbers at Class AA Binghamton are just eye-popping:

25 IP 1.08 ERA 51 K 8 BB

Tweet Comment 3 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

But he was a pre med student

No room in baseball for guys like him.

Probably knows who painted the Mona Lisa, drinks pepsi and couldn't help his minor league teams win championships.

by steve_z on Jul 6, 2006 9:47 PM EDT reply actions

Minor league Rule 5 pick

To be fair to the Pirates, he was a converted catcher who hadn't quite caught on to pitching. The Pirates didn't put him on the Triple A roster, though, and the Mets swooped in and voila, Owens figured it out. He's been for every level he has pitched at in his career, but he has a wicked fastball.

by Greg Schuler on Jul 7, 2006 8:17 AM EDT reply actions

Back problems

Owens caught on well enough. He had control problems and didn't have an offspeed pitch, but that's hardly surprising given his lack of experience. He still dominated everywhere he went, with K rates way over 1 per IP, until he started having back problems in 2004. At that point the Pirates gave up on him, even though all they had to do was put him on the AAA roster. Seems to me you'd show more patience with a guy who could hit the upper 90s and consistently throw 94-97. Just standard stupid Pirate tricks.

by WTM on Jul 7, 2006 10:05 AM EDT up reply actions