No Pepper — Part of the BravesBeat Network: Minor League Recap for 4/26
Say this is some sort of joke, Brad. It can’t be true:
Also, former Tampa Bay outfielder Jason Tyner is expected to sign with the Braves and report to Richmond after a stint in extended spring training.
Apparently, one DeWayne Wise wasn’t enough. The Braves are assembling a set. Tyner has played 246 games in the major leagues, batting 778 times. His career OBP is .229. His career slugging percentage is .294. He’s so bad that the Devil Rays didn’t want him. I know that worked out with John Burkett, but there are limits.
I am looking very hard to find a bright spot here, but it does seem that Tyner is improving. In 2003 he did post a .350 OBP. Is this the result of noise or real improvement? I can’t say. But let’s hope that Schuerholz sees something there that everyone else is missing. I guess we can afford to take a chance on a project with 3 solid outfielders and a fourth (Langerhans) in AAA. Think of the Tyner project as the replacement for the Banyan project.
Is it true that Tyner has never had a home run at any level of professional baseball? If so, he’s the anti-Branyan.
Well, it was only ten walks. Though none of them were intentional. (On the other hand, why would you ever walk Jason Tyner? What’s the worst he can do to you, bunt you to death?) And some of the players he’s broadly comparable to became functional, if powerless, eventually. And he’s a few years younger than Wise.
This concludes the list of good things about Jason Tyner.
If there is another bright spot, it’s that this would probably just be a pick-up for organizational depth, in case they need to call up Langerhans or Hollins. I doubt they intend to use Tyner at the ML level.
Off-topic, but on Baseball Tonight I just heard John Kruk say that Juan Pierre is more valuable than Barry Bonds. His logic goes, “Look, Barry Bonds is going to walk 200 times this year. If you walk Juan Pierre 200 times he’s going to kill you every time.”
Cue the Guinness TV commercial voices:
“You know, I was thinking, maybe it’s not such a good idea to walk Juan Pierre 200 times.”
“Don’t walk Juan Pierre 200 times! Brilliant!”
“Brilliant!”
Unfortunately, it does look to be the truth Mac. If we had our druthers and got Langerhans promoted instead of the Hessman shuttle, I could see Tyner filling a roster spot, but that’s about the extent of it. Hopefully there will never be any need for him in Atlanta, but if that is the case, why is he needed in Richmond?
You know, if they walked Jason Tyner 200 times, he’d reach base at least 210.
I used to think Tyner would make a good leadoff hitter in Tampa. He had a decent 2001 season. Of course, that was the only decent year he ever had. I agree that he could be used for organizational depth and Langerhans might be called up if he continues to impress in AAA. At least that’s what I hope.
From what I understand, the Braves didn’t sign Tyner. At least, not the _ATLANTA_ Braves. The Richmond Braves are free to sign whoever they want.
As for Hessman/Langerhans, we needed a first baseman with Marrero and Franco sidelined. And we needed an OF with Marrero and Chipper sidelined. Oh, well, look at that…Hessman is both of those things.
The sky sure seems to be falling a lot lately on this board. Then again, I haven’t been posting for very long so maybe I just haven’t figured out what to expect.