Recently, I was able to sit down with Mets minor league lefty Robert Carson and we had an interesting chat. The Hattiesburg, Mississippi native talked about his take on his rather aggressive promotion in 2010, his thoughts about being sent to the Arizona Fall League, a potential future in the bullpen and more. Click on the 'Play' button below to listen in!
Click past the break for a transcript of the chat:
Rob: How has camp been for you so far?
Carson: It's just the second day. Day one was the usual: I had to get up early and go do some blood work and physicals and get all that good stuff taken care of. And now it's day two, we're having a lot of good meetings, a lot of classroom sessions about baseball and stuff so it's going good so far.
Rob: Now I want to look back at your 2010 a little bit. It was kind of an up-and-down year for you; you started out pretty nicely in St. Lucie, after a promotion to Binghamton things got a little rougher. Can you talk about that?
Carson: Yeah, starting out in St. Lucie I kind of had a rough first four starts. Then going back with Phil Regan and Rick Waits -- the pitching coordinator and pitching coach -- we kind of figured some things out and worked in a lot of bullpens and I kind of put together a little streak and got the promotion to Binghamton. And going to Binghamton, it was a different transfer, from High-A to Double-A, it's a little different. The guys are more patient, more...they're good hitters. And I just really had to focus on being able to carry what I took from St. Lucie to Binghamton which was kind of hard, you know? It was a learning experience from last year. So I learned a lot and learned what kind of pitcher I was and it was pretty fun.
Rob: So you felt like you learned from that, so if you could go back you wouldn't change that promotion or anything like that?
Carson: Maybe...probably. I wish it could have been better...a better promotion. I wish I could have been better in Double-A but I didn't. So I took a lot of stuff from it and worked out a lot this offseason...in the (Arizona) Fall League and the offseason. So now I'm back and ready to go.
Rob: So you mentioned that you pitched in the Arizona Fall League; why don't you tell me that what experience was like because that's a star-studded league, lots of prospects, a lot of talent, what was that like?
Carson: Yeah it's a lot of talent (out) there. It was a great experience. It was fun, man. I got to really work on a lot of stuff. Just being out there with those guys, there's probably gonna be future big leaguers and facing some of those guys...they're very good players. It was a great time, man. Just being out there with different guys from organizations and seeing these guys playing and being on a team with them, it was a lot of fun.
Rob: Another thing I wanted to ask you about was that you kind of made the transition -- a little bit -- to the bullpen this year, or I should say last year now. Did you feel comfortable with that and is that something you think will be long-term? How did that go?
*Note - Carson only made one relief appearance during the regular season in 2010 but before our chat he mentioned relief work during instructs.
Carson: I really don't know, it's different. It was really different, I see what relievers have to go through coming out of the bullpen. It's different, it's different preparation transferring from a starting to a bullpen pitcher. So I really don't know. That's pretty much up to the organization whether it's gonna be long-term but if it is, I'm gonna roll with it and just do my part.
Rob: One more, just wanted to ask you about your strengths and your weaknesses as a pitcher?
Carson: Well my strengths, I have to say I'm pretty good at controlling the fastball. I pretty much right now can control my fastball, throw it to each side of the plate. My slider has came a long way. And my weaknesses, I'm still working on my change up. I'm really gonna need that in my repertoire and it's coming along very nicely but it still needs a little more work, being consistent with it. And also my two-seamer that I just got, and I'm really looking forward to this year in spring training and STEP camp and maybe in games throwing the two-seamer.