Robert Whalen took the mound for the K-Mets yesterday and surrendered four earned runs over six innings while punching out seven batters. The four runs the Bluefield Blue Jays scored off him almost seemed like an anomaly, as even after that, his ERA still stands at an outstanding 1.87 with 76 strikeouts in 72.1 innings of work. The important thing, however, is that Kingsport was able to rally themselves back into the game and actually pull off a 7-6 win in extra innings via a walk-off hit from Jeckyl De Leon — his third of the season.

The victory clinched a play-off spot for our K-Mets, in the same game that first-round pick Dominic Smith made his debut off the bench with two walks, so it was a good game all-around. After the game, Whalen took to Twitter and got into a conversation with Tejesh of Mets Prospect Hub where he enlightened us on something — the Kingsport pitchers, for the most part, call their own games.

@MetsProspectHub I made terrible pitch selections in those 2 innings. No one to blame but myself. Adjusted a little too late

— Rob Whalen (@RobWhalen38) August 29, 2013

@MetsProspectHub Of course man, only way to learn and get better. Called my own game all season. Some considerations from the bench at times

— Rob Whalen (@RobWhalen38) August 29, 2013

@MetsProspectHub Yeah for the most part. Some have more help from coaches than others

— Rob Whalen (@RobWhalen38) August 29, 2013

First off, how much more awesome does Whalen’s ERA or Chris Flexen‘s recent dominance seem taking into account that they called their own games for the most part? It’s a sign of the mental maturity of our prospects and just how much our coaching staff trusts them at an early level. If this is an organization philosophy, I think it’s an excellent way to handle our young pitchers because it allows them to grow on the mound and feel responsible for their success. As Whalen mentioned, some have more help than others, which is an understandable phenomenon. I can imagine that most of them want to get to the point where they have minimal assistance from the coaches.

I couldn’t let Whalen go without asking him a question about our SS prospect, Amed Rosario, who was surprisingly sent to start the year at Kingsport at 17 years of age. Whalen gave me exactly the answer I wanted to hear:

@SilverHeatMMO @TK_MMO He’s going to be really really good. Great teammate. Real good kid.

— Rob Whalen (@RobWhalen38) August 29, 2013

I strongly recommend that our readers who have a Twitter follow Rob, @RobWhalen38, as he’s not only an entertaining guy but by far one of the more interactive Mets prospects out there. But don’t call him the whale like the Kingsport Mets did…he doesn’t like it. If you can think of a better nickname for the man here at Mets Minors, leave one in the comments! Rob will appreciate it.

Thoughts from Matt M.:

Like Satish said, this is great to hear. I would have never expected these pitchers to be calling their own games (for the most part), especially in rookie ball. You just assume in this day and age that the game is being called from the dugout. I think this does a lot for their development moving forward. It allows them to get into more of the game planning side of things early on in their careers, which will make them more comfortable and assertive in those situations once they move up into the upper minors and major leagues. It also helps them learn things about themselves that they wouldn’t have if they didn’t call their own pitches. Whalen said it above about his poor pitch selection. He can now use that as a learning experience and do things differently in his next start, or the next time he runs into a similar situation.

Hearing something like this is great, and I also hope this is an organizational philosophy that is employed at all levels of the minors.