Tim Tebow: Pride of The Philippines

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If you only watch football casually, I can easily see how Tebow would have looked like one of the worst you had ever seen.

I mean, he looked fucking terrible. That he had any success was a testament to his God given athletic talents--like, I remember some great successes on his part, but I don't remember ever thinking he looked smooth or comfortable. I mean, the running joke in the game threads was comparing Manning's laser rocket arm to Tebow's trebuchet.

NFL QB is a weird position where it's actually more important to be able to take one step forward to narrowly miss a dude you are otherwise ignoring than it is to be able to bounce off of contact and scamper. It's a weird monkey wrench in how we've traditionally thought about athletics, but it's part of what makes football so fascinating.
 

mauidano

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Tim Tebow got out of the on deck circle and shook an autistic kid's hand, then crushed a three-run homer

Damn him! Another life changed by Tebow. On a mission from God.
 

shaggydog2000

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Well, after his nice first week, Tebow's hit .218/.266/.366 over the last month in High A, with a 4.5% BB% and 26.4% K%, and has no home runs and only 1 extra base hit in the last week and a half. But the kid doesn't have leprosy now, so we can just pretend it's a win for both of them.
 

The Needler

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I'm having a hard time understanding post 307 in conjunction with post 302.
The video in that tweet was taken at a game on July 29. Presumably, it took a little while to make it into the hands of "Baseball King."

He's 5-47 with 16 Ks, 0 BB, and just 1 2B in the 14 games since.
 
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Lose Remerswaal

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Tim Tebow will not be starting the 2018 season with the New York Mets

Tim Tebow was reassigned by the New York Mets to their minor league camp on Tuesday after he went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts in an exhibition against the Houston Astros.The former NFL quarterback and 2007 Heisman Trophy winner hit .056 (1-for-18) with 11 strikeouts in seven big league exhibition games. The 30-year-old athlete, who is not on the Mets' 40-man roster, has been hampered by a left ankle sprain.
 

jon abbey

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Broken hamate bone for our hero, season probably done. The Mets were almost definitely going to call him up in September.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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I saw him play a couple weeks ago, when he singled and homered in Akron. I've been to quite a few minor league games over the years and it's the only time I've ever seen the home team sell an opponent's jersey in the souvenir shop… or even heard everyone openly root for a player on the opposing team. Full disclosure, I went with 5 others and not everyone could get there early, so we were still eating in the restaurant in the right field corner and I only saw Tebow's 1st inning homer on the monitor near our table. I'm not a fan, but have to admit, he'd probably have a legit major league career if he'd pursued it a few years earlier.

*
 

gedman211

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I just hope they were able to sell enough Tebow jerseys to pay Bobby Bonilla's salary this year.
 

E5 Yaz

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Broken hamate bone for our hero, season probably done. The Mets were almost definitely going to call him up in September.
They still can. See Tebow in the dugout! See Tebow sign autographs!
 

axx

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Sounds like Tebow will likely be promoted to the majors at some point next year. Guess the Mets are realistic about their chances next year and want to sell tickets.
 

The Raccoon

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Sounds like Tebow will likely be promoted to the majors at some point next year. Guess the Mets are realistic about their chances next year and want to sell tickets.
In completely unrelated news: Brodie van Wagenen was Tim Tebows agent until he got hired as Mets GM.
 

axx

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Our "Hero" is going to start Spring Training with the Major League club, per the Twitters. Well that's if you can call the Mets a Major League Club.
 

Plympton91

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I love when good guys succeed like that. Good for him. He’s already beaten the baseball odds by making it to AA.
 

jon abbey

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“Tim Tebow is not taking well to Triple-A Syracuse. He went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts today, falling to .143/.211/.186 with a 35-percent K rate in 21 games. Tebow has just three extra-base hits and no home runs.”
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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He's only 31, he's got time!

On the one hand I have to admire the guy for riding busses in the minors when he could land an lucrative TV gig for college FB tomorrow. On the other I have to wonder when it's time to give up the dream.
 

shaggydog2000

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He's only 31, he's got time!

On the one hand I have to admire the guy for riding busses in the minors when he could land an lucrative TV gig for college FB tomorrow. On the other I have to wonder when it's time to give up the dream.
He still has a lucrative TV gig doing college football for ESPN. He's trying to double dip.
 

billy ashley

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So he can’t be Prez?
He still can be. Like John McCain, before him, you can run for President having been born abroad so long as your parents were citizens and filed the appropriate paperwork. There was a lawsuit to prevent McCain from being the nominee, it was unsuccessful.

More on topic: There are 100 million people in the Philippians. Tebow probably isn't among their 30 best baseball players. The guy put up a 26 wRC+ as 32 year old in AAA. If this wasn't a stupid publicity stunt, he'd never have taken up a roster spot these past couple years.

I don't care for the man or his politics, but I guess it's kinda interesting that he was an averagish offensive player in AA given his career path.
 

InstaFace

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More on topic: There are 100 million people in the Philippians. Tebow probably isn't among their 30 best baseball players. The guy put up a 26 wRC+ as 32 year old in AAA. If this wasn't a stupid publicity stunt, he'd never have taken up a roster spot these past couple years.

I don't care for the man or his politics, but I guess it's kinda interesting that he was an averagish offensive player in AA given his career path.
Maybe this belongs in a new WBC 2021 thread, but: What makes you confident that Tebow isn't among the 30 best baseball players in the Philippines? Their national sport is pretty much basketball, followed by football and cricket. How many fringe major leaguers could they possibly have? Here's the roster, have at it. You've got:

- 3 retired big leaguers (Rapada, Farris and Aguila)
- some former AA/AAA-level players (Garrison, K. Vance, Songco), some of whom are now in the indy leagues
- some former low-minors types (Haynal, Conlan)
- some current and former indy-league-level guys (Juarez, Ramirez, Bunda, Wong)
- a minor leaguer in Japan (Olivares)

...and a dozen guys who lack wikipedia pages or B-Ref profiles entirely, who probably played NCAA ball at best. It's not a baseball hotbed, it's a frontier outpost. I'd put money down that Tebow is probably one of the 30 best eligible players for their roster. I mean, he got to AA more or less on merit, right? Maybe ahead of schedule or with a lowered bar, but he wasn't an embarrassment in the low minors.

Fill in the blank: The Philippines are to international baseball as ____ is to international soccer. Guatemala, maybe? Romania? They're probably going to fail to come out of the qualifiers.
 
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Royal Reader

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Maybe this belongs in a new WBC 2021 thread, but: What makes you confident that Tebow isn't among the 30 best baseball players in the Philippines? Their national sport is pretty much basketball, followed by football and cricket. How many fringe major leaguers could they possibly have? Here's the roster, have at it. You've got:

- 3 retired big leaguers (Rapada, Farris and Aguila)
- some former AA/AAA-level players (Garrison, K. Vance, Songco), some of whom are now in the indy leagues
- some former low-minors types (Haynal, Conlan)
- some current and former indy-league-level guys (Juarez, Ramirez, Bunda, Wong)
- a minor leaguer in Japan (Olivares)

...and a dozen guys who lack wikipedia pages or B-Ref profiles entirely, who probably played NCAA ball at best. It's not a baseball hotbed, it's a frontier outpost. I'd put money down that Tebow is probably one of the 30 best eligible players for their roster. I mean, he got to AA more or less on merit, right? Maybe ahead of schedule or with a lowered bar, but he wasn't an embarrassment in the low minors.

Fill in the blank: The Philippines are to international baseball as ____ is to international soccer. Guatemala, maybe? Romania? They're probably going to fail to come out of the qualifiers.
Romania made a world cup QF in living memory. Relatively large country where soccer is #1. Bit of a low ebb at the moment but their national football team is closer to what Korea is to baseball, than what the Philippines are.

Guatemala might be a shout. Canada? Lithuania? New Zealand?
 

billy ashley

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I think we're overselling Tebow's ability, here.

Of all players to accumulate 250 AAA plate appearances last season, he ranked dead last in wrc+ by 9 full points. He was 9 points behind the second worst player on that list. Couple that with the fact that he's a corner OF with no arm, and yeah, I think it's not crazy to believe there are better options.
 

InstaFace

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Yeah sure, but that's at AAA. No one is arguing he's a legit MLB prospect. Even if his true talent level is "average at AA" or even "Average at High-A", that still blows most of the Filipino roster out of the water. He's a legit pro baseball player, he's just one of the great many who will never sniff the bigs, and we only happen to know his name for unique reasons.
 

SoxJox

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I think the beat-the-Tim-Tebow-horse has run its course by now, doesn't SoSH think? He likely will never make it to the majors, and he probably knows that. As as far as Smilin' Joe's observation about it being time to give up the dream, what do we know about his dream - beyond the recent marriage to the 2017 Miss Universe? Maybe he just enjoys playing the game - at whatever level. Period. And it's not like he's looking to baseball earnings to make it through his days. His estimated net worth is reported at between $4M - $10M, and with endorsements and marketing contracts with the likes of Nike, Adidas, Jockey, and EASports, to name a few, he's doing OK. If I could pull all that off while being under contract to run around in the sun on manicured green grass and rolled and raked dirt, at age 31, I'd snap up the chance and not give a rat's ass what anybody thought of my wrc+ or any other stat.
 
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jon abbey

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I think the beat-the-Tim-Tebow-horse has run its course by now, doesn't SoSH think?
Eh, he is taking ABs away from someone with an actual future, he will turn 33 in August and was the worst player in all of AAA last year as detailed above. He is the current equivalent of Eddie Gaedel, except Gaedel actually got on base in his one AB. :)

Also don't rule out a big league stint at some point since Brodie used to be his agent and the Mets are always gonna Mets.
 

Cesar Crespo

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Eh, he is taking ABs away from someone with an actual future,
He really isn't and someone who follows the minors as much as you knows this. There's plenty of minor league filler.

edit: If he was on a ML roster, that would be the case. He isn't, yet.
 

RetractableRoof

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Not relevant per se, but I thought I'd add a pro-Tebow note here (which perhaps people already know about). Through his organization, Tebow sponsors a national event called "A Night to Shine". It basically creates many simultaneous local red carpet style events equivalent to Prom Night for area special needs folks. They and their escort or buddy for the night attend in full formal attire complete with corsages and/or boutonnieres. Music, food, dancing, and each of the attendees is crowned king or queen for the night. By all accounts it's an amazing night hosted by local churches and volunteer staff. For some of the attendees this is a once in a lifetime event that they would never experience any other way.

I was fortunate enough to be allowed to volunteer at the setup at one of the local churches prior to the event, and unfortunately a large Stoughton area power outage just before the event caused the local event to be cancelled this year. I'm looking forward to participating more heavily next year.

I know this isn't sports related, but sometimes he really does hit one out of the park and I think this is one of those cases.
 

billy ashley

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He really isn't and someone who follows the minors as much as you knows this. There's plenty of minor league filler.

edit: If he was on a ML roster, that would be the case. He isn't, yet.

This was certainly true when he was in the lower minors, but Tebow's roster spot on a AAA club could in theory block an all glove no bat outfielder from being at the right place and right time for a MLB call up. Given what minor league salaries are, those weeks in the majors can make a real difference in that person's short to medium term.

I don't fault the guy for playing baseball. There are tons of prospects out there who don't have a credible path to the majors. I do think it's a sideshow, though, and I blame the Mets for engaging in it.
 

billy ashley

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I mean put another way:

Does anyone truly, honestly believe that Tebow would have been given these chances if it weren't for his status as a former NFL QB and cultural figure? If he was some little known former NCAA player?

He was athletic enough that he'd probably attract scouts to his workout (he did). Those scouts would probably come to the conclusion that he was super strong and powerful as a human being (he is) but that he had zero transferable skills (that's basically what happened). That would be the end of his story.

But no, because of who he is, he is being treated differently. Instead he's gotten regular playing time for 4 years, 3 of which he laughably bad, 1 in which he put up interesting numbers for a middle infielder a decade younger. That's sort of shitty, no? Again, I don't blame Tebow for this. That's on the Mets.
 

RetractableRoof

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I mean put another way:

Does anyone truly, honestly believe that Tebow would have been given these chances if it weren't for his status as a former NFL QB and cultural figure? If he was some little known former NCAA player?

He was athletic enough that he'd probably attract scouts to his workout (he did). Those scouts would probably come to the conclusion that he was super strong and powerful as a human being (he is) but that he had zero transferable skills (that's basically what happened). That would be the end of his story.

But no, because of who he is, he is being treated differently. Instead he's gotten regular playing time for 4 years, 3 of which he laughably bad, 1 in which he put up interesting numbers for a middle infielder a decade younger. That's sort of shitty, no? Again, I don't blame Tebow for this. That's on the Mets.
Without contradicting anything you are saying, at the end of the day, baseball is a game, but isn't it entertainment? And also a business? What if the AAA franchise thinks Tebow is worth another 100 fans a night in the seats? Is it worth it to keep him there? 1000 fans? 1500? Does that value override the possible 1 game impact where travel time from the AAA team versus the AA team impeded a call up of a needed MLB backup? I dunno, but suspect the answer is yes for those involved.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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There's tons of 33 year old guys in AAA that will never get more than a cup of coffee. It's convenient to give him a little shit for being who he is, but it's a bit overboard to whine about him taking food out of other guys' mouths (so to speak).