• Who Is Brian Duensing?

    Posted by on October 7th, 2009 · Comments (6)

    Brian Duensing is the little lefty rookie pitcher who will face the Yankees in Game One of the 2009 ALDS.

    He was taken in the 3rd round of the 2005 draft by the Twins – out of the University of Nebraska. Duensing was a college teammate of Zach Kroenke that season – who was taken by the Yankees later in that same draft. Joba Chamberlain and Alex Gordon also played on that 2005 University of Nebraska team.

    Here are his Triple-A stats from the last two seasons:

    Year Age Tm Lg Lev Aff W L ERA G GS SV IP H ER HR BB SO WHIP SO/BB
    2008 25 Rochester IL AAA MIN 5 11 4.28 25 24 0 138.2 150 66 16 34 77 1.327 2.26
    2009 26 Rochester IL AAA MIN 4 6 4.66 13 13 0 75.1 87 39 2 19 44 1.407 2.32
    Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
    Generated 10/7/2009.

     

    While that doesn’t appear impressive, in his last 7 big leauge starts this season, from August 22nd through September 29th, Duensing had an ERA of 2.64 in 47.6 IP while allowing a BA/OBA/SLG line of .268/.328/.352 (facing 197 batters in the process).

    It will be interesting to see how the 26-year old does under the pressure of facing the Yankees, in the Bronx, during the post-season.

    Filed under LDS 2009 · ·

    Comments on Who Is Brian Duensing?

    1. Evan3457
      October 7th, 2009 | 12:57 am

      Re: Duensing

      The #16 prospect in the Twins organization before this season (BA 2009 Prospect Handbook): LHP, 5’11″, 195

      “FB sits at 88-90, can run it up to 94…when working out of the bullpen, slow curve, slider he can shorten to a cutter or slow down to a slurve, and a changeup that remains his best pitch….he couldn’t put opponents away when he was ahead in the count…more valuable as a middle reliever…one club official sees him as a left-handed version of Matt Guerrier…”

      He’s a generic junkballing lefty version of the multiple Twins pitcher, relying on his command and his defense. The Yanks could struggle against a pitcher they’ve never seen (Howard Ehmke effect). I don’t think they will; I think they get to him by the 5th, and then the depleted Twins run up the white flag, and come back to try to steal game 2.

      Of course, if CC blows up again in the playoffs, all bets are off.
    2. Corey
      October 7th, 2009 | 9:15 am

      Evan3457 wrote:

      He’s a generic junkballing lefty

      Seems like those types of pitchers give the Yankees fits.
    3. yankees27th
      October 7th, 2009 | 10:24 am

      @ Evan3457:
      We have seen Duensing before. We faced him when he came out of the pen on 7/7. He pitched 2.2 innings and gave up 4er on 2 hits and 4 walks.
    4. Evan3457
      October 7th, 2009 | 1:49 pm

      yankees27th wrote:

      @ Evan3457:
      We have seen Duensing before. We faced him when he came out of the pen on 7/7. He pitched 2.2 innings and gave up 4er on 2 hits and 4 walks.

      You’re right; I forgot about that. Presumable he’ll be somewhat different as a starter than a newbie in long relief. I still think the Yanks get to him by the 3rd time around; say, the 5th inning.
    5. MJ
      October 7th, 2009 | 6:50 pm

      Through 7 batters, Duensing looks better than I thought. Mixing his breaking pitches extremely well. Hopefully the Yanks get to him.
    6. Evan3457
      October 8th, 2009 | 12:14 am

      MJ wrote:

      Through 7 batters, Duensing looks better than I thought. Mixing his breaking pitches extremely well. Hopefully the Yanks get to him.

      And so they did.

      Evan3457
      The Yanks could struggle against a pitcher they’ve never seen (Howard Ehmke effect). I don’t think they will; I think they get to him by the 5th, and then the depleted Twins run up the white flag, and come back to try to steal game 2.

      Of course, if CC blows up again in the playoffs, all bets are off.

      I wish I was this smart everyday. But I’m not.

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