Morning Chop: There’s an Atlanta Braves Connection to Tebow
The chances that Atlanta inks Tim Tebow after today’s showcase/tryout session are virtually nil, but there is now actually a connection of sorts to the Braves.
Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports seems to be a bit more on Tebow’s baseball bandwagon than most as representatives from close to 20 different major league clubs (including Atlanta) gather in Los Angeles for brunch and a tryout today. But whether any team opts to bring him in for a closer look after today may not matter for a while, for Tim already has a contract offer in hand.
"Aguilas del Zulia, a five-time champion of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League and two-time Caribbean Series winner, sent a contract to Tebow’s representation at CAA on Monday in hopes of securing him for the league filled with major leaguers and on-the-rise prospects. While Tebow expects to map out his future in the coming weeks, one source familiar with his plans told Yahoo Sports he has interest in playing winter ball."
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The Braves’ connection? This is a club that Eddie Perez has managed over 3 winter ‘seasons’ since 2008. This past year, he was steering Tigres de Aragua, which won the Venezuelan League on the strength of a solid 1st half.
Zuila didn’t have a strong roster and finished with the worst overall record in 2015, so they might be looking for a bit of star power in offering Tebow a contract. Regardless, if he accepts the gig, that would be a great way to gauge his abilities against actual (and credible) competition.
It’s a baptism by fire, to be sure, but at 29 years old Tebow doesn’t exactly have any time to waste if he’s going to make a bona fide run at this baseball thing.
Just to throw this out there…
I found an old scouting report for a now-retired player that has some interesting echoes of Tebow’s pursuit. Among a lot of other things, that report said the following:
"“The only weakness this kid has is that he has not played much baseball due to his football and track involvement and still lacks some baseball fluidness on offense and defense but at the same time it is hard to believe how such better he looks since high school and after a year off last spring.”"
It’s that “baseball fluidness” part to highlight. Muscled-up football athletes are often critiqued for baseball because that tends to reduce your available range of motion, particularly when swinging a bat. Baseball players thrive on leaner muscle; football players thrive on thick muscle… hence why some players embrace yoga training for the sake of flexibility.
For the record, that scouted player did do okay in baseball after playing football for a few years. Of course his name is Bo Jackson and that scouting report gave him future marks of 70-80 across the board.
That’s not Tim Tebow (clearly), but don’t quite write off his hitting issues just yet – hey, if Garry Sheffield believes he “can work with that” [swing], then I’ll defer to his expertise… and everybody knows Tebow is more than willing to learn.
So let’s just wait and see. Stranger things have happened.
One More Thing
The Braves are going to be present at this event today for “due diligence” purposes. Unless Tim comes out today looking like… well, Bo Jackson, I guess… then there will be zero interest in signing him.
Why? Because Atlanta is interested in a long-term solution with their prospects and not a flash-in-the-pan guy who under the best of all possible scenarios might be productive for 2-3 seasons.
On top of that is the unpredictability of it all: do you plan for a major league slot for someone with zero track record? Do you change your whole gameplan with players you have because of raw potential? If you don’t believe there’s time to get him to the majors, then why start?
Some teams might do so. Frankly, the Marlins might be such a club since their farm could use anything.
If nothing else, Tebow’s demeanor/character/charisma would be useful to help their kids learn about losing well… for that’s going to happen for a while in the Marlins organization.
FOLLOW-UP NOTE FROM MONDAY’S CHOP
Yesterday, I noted that AA Mississippi was in first place in their division. What I failed to report was that they’ve been in a tailspin. The M-Braves have not lost 10 of their last 12 games dating back to August 18th… the day after Dansby Swanson was called up.
They are still in first place… but only barely: half a game in front of the streaking Pensacola Blue Wahoos (Reds), who are 7-3 in their last ten games with 4 wins in a row.