20 MLB Teams to attend Tebow workout

[spuwho]

Over 20 MLB teams will send scouts to a private workout of Tim Tebow.

Per ESPN:

Tim Tebow is scheduled to hold a workout for Major League Baseball teams on Aug. 30 in Los Angeles, a source told ESPN's Jerry Crasnick.

More than 20 MLB teams are confirmed to attend the workout, a source told ESPN's Adam Schefter.

For almost the past year, Tebow has been training in Arizona and Los Angeles to hone his hitting and fielding skills in a sport he has not played on a full-time basis since 2005.

Tebow was an all-state baseball player in Florida that year and hit .494 as a junior, helping Nease High School reach the final four of the Florida state playoffs.

Tebow had a tryout with the Los Angeles Dodgers before this season, sources have told ESPN's Darren Rovell. A scout was present for the workout, and the team showed interest in Tebow afterward, the sources said.


Tim Tebow, pictured here attending a Yankees game in 2012, wants to transition from watching baseball in the stands to playing on the field at the sport's highest level. Nick Laham/Getty Images
Tebow, 29, won the Heisman Trophy and two national championships with the University of Florida and was drafted in the first round by the Denver Broncos in 2010. He has not played in the NFL since 2012 with the New York Jets. He went to training camp with the New England Patriots in 2013 and the Philadelphia Eagles in 2015 but was cut before the season each time.

Tebow's desire to play professional baseball has been met with mixed reaction. After the news of his intentions was announced, Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones poked fun at him on Twitter. Former Broncos teammate and current Jets receiver Eric Decker, meanwhile, said he was confident that Tebow would at least land a minor league contract.

Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona managed Michael Jordan when the basketball star did a stint in the minors with the Birmingham Barons in Double-A in 1994 and said earlier this month that transitioning to baseball from another sport is "a little harder jump, though, than I think people realize."

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, who played two seasons of minor league baseball in the Colorado Rockies organization, was recently asked by TheMMQB.com whether he had any advice for Tebow.

"Hope he can hit a curveball," Wilson said, adding that "baseball's pretty hard."

[funwithteeth]

http://deadspin.com/baseball-is-already-profitable-for-tim-tebow-1785407642

[spuwho]

http://deadspin.com/baseball-is-already-profitable-for-tim-tebow-1785407642

Interesting article. Hey, CAA is going to get the biggest bang for his buck. Point well made, its no longer Tim the person, its Tim Inc.

[copperfiend]

What a publicity stunt. This is almost certainly tied in somehow with a reality show on ABC or ESPN.

[spuwho]

28 teams came out to scout Tim Inc. Only the Cubs and A's declined. In simple terms he is a big, strong prospect who needs a lot of instruction. The next Roy Hobbs? Probably not.

My guess is he will go to a fall instruction league, then wander through 2 years of farm ball and then hang it up.

As Michael Jordan found out, traveling in old buses, sleeping in creepy shack hotels, eating road food and dealing with home town umpires gets really old fast.

Per ESPN:

LOS ANGELES -- The high point of Tim Tebow's big audition came during batting practice, when he pulverized a fastball high and deep to right center field, through a grove of trees and off an adjacent building. An audible gasp or two could be heard from the third base dugout at Dedeaux Field. This was what the 46 scouts representing 28 major-league teams had come to see.

Tebow and his representatives wanted to make the showcase as authentic as possible, so they added a wrinkle for another round. David Aardsma and Chad Smith, two pitchers with major-league experience, threw a simulated game to Tebow, with balls and strikes, changeups and breaking balls mixed in with heaters, and an ever-present surprise element: One pitch after the next, Tebow had no idea what was coming.

Tebow's willingness to hang in the box and keep swinging away said a lot about the enthusiasm and seriousness he has for his quest. But on an oppressively hot, blazingly sunny Southern California day, his performance in the extra session sucked some of the air out of the workout. It also drummed home a lesson: He has a lot of ground to cover, in a brief window of time.

"The batting practice was impressive, and if he had carried it over into the simulated game, I think a lot of teams would have come away from this very interested," a veteran scout said. "But it just didn't translate. He was out front a lot and he didn't recognize some pitches. He didn't take the same approach. It seemed like he was more interested in making contact, and his barrel was dragging.

"I can still see a team being interested, but he has a long way to go."

Roy Hobbs in the novel "The Natural" was 34 when he reached the big leagues, but Tebow's non-fictional approach to reinventing himself doesn't afford him that big a window. He's 29 years old and hasn't played organized baseball since his junior year of high school in Florida. He needs to absorb a lot of subtleties that he missed while focusing exclusively on football for a decade.

Tuesday's showcase was Tebow's coming-out party after three months of working out with former big-league catcher Chad Moeller in Scottsdale, Arizona. Tebow showed up on the main field at 11 a.m., wearing a black Lycra shirt that accentuated his muscles, along with orange socks and an orange compression sleeve on his right arm.

"You look good, you feel good," Tebow said. "You feel good, you play good."


Tim Tebow took batting practice and then had two pitchers throw a simulated game to him. AP Photo/Chris Carlson
Tebow stuck to a tightly-scripted menu of activities. First he ran a 60-yard dash that scouts timed at 6.6 to 6.8 seconds -- a better than average grade on the 20-80 player evaluation scale. The next round of activities, shagging balls in the outfield and making throws, didn't go as well. Tebow looked mechanical at times, had a misstep or two with his footwork, and showed a throwing arm that one scout gave a 40 grade.

Two things everyone agreed on: 1) Tebow is a gifted athlete; and 2) he's a world-class competitor. Moeller, his mentor, half-jokingly says that it's hard to wrestle the bat out of Tebow's hands because of the pronounced size difference between them. When Tebow refused to say "uncle" amid temperatures in the high 80s, Moeller finally had to walk onto the field and obstruct his view for the workout to end within two hours.

"I thought Tim threw the ball well,'' Moeller said, "and he obviously ran well. He's a special athlete. As hitters, do we always think we can do something a little better? Sure. But I liked what I saw. He showed he can obviously hit a baseball a long way. He has great opposite-field power, and I thought the live at-bats went well. There's no question David Aardsma was out here today looking to find a job for next year. That makes it more real.''

When asked to cite major-league comparables for Tebow, scouts strained for names. Tebow stands 6-foot-3, weighs 255 pounds and has 7.3 percent body fat. Even perennial MVP Mike Trout doesn't have that kind of physical presence.

"How about a poor man's Kirk Gibson?" a scout said. "He's just a big, strong football player who plays the game hard.''

Another scout mentioned Ryan Klesko and Laynce Nix, muscular lefty sluggers who had a lot of power and some significant swing-and-miss in their portfolios. A third scout, while stumped for comps, made it clear that Tebow definitely has the raw materials.

"As an open-field runner, he's what you're looking for," the scout said. "And his raw power is an (80). The biggest questions are, what level does he compete at early, and how long is he willing to give it? He's got every tool you're looking for. But how does he make the adjustments as a hitter?''

Tim Tebow's day in front of the scouts arrived Tuesday. How did we get here, and what chance does he have of making the leap to baseball? Well, that depends on who you ask.
So what comes next? After Tuesday's workout, five or six teams met with Tebow privately, which was a positive sign. Brodie Van Wagenen, Tebow's representative at CAA, said the ideal scenario would be for a team to sign Tebow and get him in uniform by the instructional league in late September. The development plan might include a stint in the Arizona Fall League or in winter ball, possibly in Latin America.

"There's been a lot of skepticism and a lot of criticism, and naturally everybody comes with a little bit of hesitation when they get to see what this euphoria is all about," Van Wagenen said. "I think teams have been very pleasantly surprised with Tim's talent and his commitment. They're viewing this with a whole new appreciation of him as a baseball player -- not just a celebrity or a needle mover."

As scores of teammates and others can attest, no one states the case for Tebow better than Tebow himself. During a 15-minute give-and-take with reporters after his workout, Tebow spoke with fervor, humor and not a shred of doubt that he will do everything in his power to become a baseball player. He's willing to handle the drudgery and make whatever sacrifices are necessary.

"This is something I love and I'm passionate about it, but it's not my identity," Tebow said. "It's not my foundation. I have that in so many bigger things -- my faith, my family and all my relationships. When you have that mindset, it lets you be free to go out there and compete. You don't have the fear of failure and what other people say about you. You can just go out there and go after what you believe."

Long story short: A rough batting practice session here or a few hiccups there aren't going to dissuade Tebow from the task at hand. He has made up his mind that he's going to play baseball, and he'll keep trying until everyone tells him no.

[BridgeTroll]

Were the Vikings there?

[spuwho]

Were the Vikings there?

The Vikings calling Tim Inc. Is as likely as calling Jordan Rodgers I would say.

[spuwho]

I guess the Vikings decided Sam Bradford was better.

Press reporting Atlanta Braves currently moving to sign Tim Inc. To a minor league contract. That would put Timmy in Jacksonville several times a year if he makes it the Southern League.

[spuwho]

Mets signed Tebow today. He will be sent to Port St Lucie for the Instructional League.