Lopez continued in his praise of Brunnemann, "To put a lot of words into maybe just a couple? Model citizen. On time for everything. On top of everything. Applies the information. He's one of the guys that listens and applies the information and executes it." Lopez credits Brunnemann's success to the fact that he gets the absolute maximum out of his natural abilities through hard work.
Tyler Brunnemann - June 2014
Photo by Jayne Hansen
And success is definitely something that Brunnemann has had a lot of so far this season. In 18 bullpen appearances for Quad Cities, the 22-year old righty has a 1.56 ERA and a 0.837 WHIP. In 34+ innings, he has struck out 35 batters while walking nine. Only four of 15 inherited runners have scored on his watch. His has been an incredibly reliable arm out of the Quad Cities 'pen.
But Brunnemann isn't one to toot his own horn. He's quiet and unassuming and has a kind of "Aw shucks, just doing my job, ma'am" quality about him. Even when I asked him about his off-season weight loss which totaled 40 pounds, he downplayed the magnitude of such an accomplishment, "Just changed eating habits pretty much. Eating healthy and working out a little bit more."
But even though Brunnemann is quiet, I got to know him a little bit more when I talked to him last weekend in Quad Cities. As usual with pitchers, my first question was regarding his pitch repertoire. "I throw a fastball, which is the pitch I throw the most and am most confident in, and then curveball and change up, curveball more for an out pitch. Fastball right about 88 to 91 usually, and then I think the curveball is in the lower 70's, change up maybe mid 70's. I get decent movement on the curveball and change up. [I've] been working on those both a lot."
So far this season, Brunnemann told me that he has been "just working on the curveball and throwing a lot of strikes and just working on getting outs." He continued, "And then definitely all season this year, I've been working on the curveball, tightening it up, sharpening it up and that's been going well, getting more strikeouts with it."
I asked Brunnemann what the biggest adjustment has been for him in playing professional ball, "I think the biggest adjustment might just be just being ready to play everyday. In college, we only played three times a week and in professional baseball, it's seven days a week, and just being ready to always pitch, being ready to go out there and get your work in everyday. Especially in the bullpen. Always being ready down there."
Of Brunnemann's All-Star experience, he told me, "The All-Star game was great. It was a lot of fun. The whole weekend was good, set up by West Michigan. And in the game, Bork told me eight pitches and just nice quick 1-2-3. It was a lot of fun out there. It was fun, meeting some guys from other teams, just enjoying the experience."
On the experience of being a late round draft pick, Brunnemann said, "The draft, it was a stressful day. I talked to the Astros throughout the day and it wasn't happening for a while. I was getting real frustrated at the end and then I got picked and it was great and I was just ready to go. So I went to Greeneville a week or two later. I just wanted to get playing. I don't even think about it really, being a 40th rounder. I just do what I do."
Brunnemann hails from Garden Ridge, Texas, just north of San Antonio and that is still his home in the off-season. He attended Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, and was only the second player ever to be drafted from that school and the first since the Phillies drafted Rusty Hamric in 1979. According to Brunnemann, "We're a small school out in West Texas. I think our enrollment's like 2500, not a lot of people. Just went there for baseball. I chose them because of my educational path I wanted to be on and baseball just ended up working out." He majored in exercise science and originally thought about going into physical therapy, but now his post-playing goal is to be a coach.
And, as always, I asked Brunnemann some of my silly questions. Which Astros pitcher has a pitch he would like to steal? "I'd say, this one's probably said a lot, but [Jandel] Gustave's fastball. I've seen him hit, in Greeneville last year, hit 102 so that would definitely be nice to have." Which Astros hitter would he least like to face? "I would say probably Brett Phillips. He just hits the ball a lot. He gets good counts. He's had a lot of extra base hits this year and he's fast."
When I asked Tyler who on the team makes him laugh, he didn't want to chose. "Do I have to narrow it down to one person? I would just say the bullpen as a group. We get along real well down there. We joke around and have a lot of fun and then all those guys this year have been doing great. Once we get on the mound, it's all business and the whole bullpen's been pitching real well."
Sometimes I get no answer at all, but occasionally, I will get surprised when I ask a player to tell me something about himself that most people don't know and might be surprised to hear. Such was the case with Brunnemann. "When I was 11, I had a brain tumor removed. It was benign. So I'm good now, but that happened. I was playing baseball and I has having double vision actually and that's obviously not easy. So I went to an eye doctor and I got sent in for an MRI that day and then I had surgery the next day. It was crazy. It went real fast. I was 11. I didn't even understand what was going on."
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Brunnemann isn't a flashy player. He doesn't have the most elite stuff on the team. But he knows that he has been given an opportunity and he wants to make the most of that opportunity. Borkowski put it well, "He wants to pitch in the big leagues. He has the desire to pitch in the big leagues and he's going to get every ounce out of himself that he can. He competes. He prepares. He's ready to go. He really takes care of himself and it's a lot of fun to watch a kid like him have success." I couldn't agree more.
Very nice Jayne, thank you!
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