Ugly pitch, beautiful results

When Tyler Robertson was drafted into the Twins farm system last year, the Baseball America report on him used the words "funky", "ugly" and "unorthodox" to describe his delivery.

"After he begins his windup, Robertson's left arm, in the words of one scout, plunges straight down," Baseball America wrote in their report. "He then brings the arm back up and goes to the plate."

It's a bit hard to visualize, but I needed to see him throw only one pitch to know who he was. It was that identifiable.

I've written about it, and generally, when someone shows up for a game, they "have to see this boy pitch" to see if I'm crazy or not. I'm not. Nor was B.A.

"I've cleaned it up some," Tyler tells me.

"You've never thrown a pitch in which you actually used that elbow," I tell him. It's okay. He pitches well. Funky, but well.

coming into the Twins out of Bella Vista High School, at 6'5" and 215 lbs, the question he generally gets asked is "What college are you from?" Well, they didn't make them that big when I was in high school either.

His size and his resume certainly override any mitigating factors the pitching style might hold. Some scouts don't feel that Robertson will be able to improve much without overhauling his mechanics. While not a fireballer, he has a good fastball that runs and can throw to overpower batters, at least at the this level.

Robertson finished up last year's Gulf Coast League season with a 4-2 record anda 4.25 era. But he lead the club in strike outs, 54 in 48.2 innings. It's his ability to get the strike outs that's key.

In any case, I've been wanting to get Robertson youtubed so that I could share his delivery with the rest of the world. So I was quite pleased when he showed up with in uniform. Except for the sock, which he says are staying up.

It's called a uniform, Mr. Robertson, because you are all supposed to look UNIFORM.

While the socks were up, so were his pitches in the first inning, which prompted him to say "I was terrible yesterday."

"Well, I wasn't really happy with the walk and the wild pitch, however you did get four strikeouts."

"I always get strike outs."

"You did really well in the second inning."

(He should teach Lirano to pitch, then he wouldn't need to worry about rehabbing that elbow.)

He seemed a bit tired of my teasing him about the elbow. He also gave up two runs in yesterday's game, a 9-4 shelling by the Pirates.

However, I can't lay the loss on him and I really can't say anything bad about the kid. He's very level headed around camp and doesn't goof off the way some of the guys do.

He enjoys fishing and was hanging around with Mike Allen last year, which seemed to suit them both. While Tyler had originally said he wasn't going to buy a car with his bonus money, he did end up purchasing a truck - don't ask, I forget which kind, but it's well tricked out - and his 16 year old brother is driving it around Sacramento. Which leaves him without wheels in Southwest Florida.

This year he's rooming with Thomas Wright, who is from Tennessee. I believe E-Town would suit them both.

"There's a place called the Electric Cowboy, which you'll like Tyler." Actually I think it's Johnson City, which if I'm not mistaken, is the next big city over.

"I'm there already," he says. Tyler really likes country music.

"You need to come to Elizabethton," he tells me. We'll see.

I think he was the only guy on the team who's mom came to visit him and told him to do his own laundry. I laughed and said "Good for her. But you're the only guy on the team who's mom took him Busch Gardens too."

I think the key point with him now is his speed...In high school he was going throwing 88-to-90 miles an hour, he's been around 87 with the GCL Twins. He keeps saying "I'm going to throw 90 today," but I've not been there when..if..he's hit it.

That should change in Elizabethton. GCL and Extended is notorious for wearing pitchers out and keeping their speed down. Most however bounce right back when they get out of Southwest Florida.

Given that he was one of our most reliable starters last year, and assuming that yesterday's first inning was more of an aberration than a normal happening, he should be bound for the Smokey Mountain in another month.

And sorry, I can't report any strange and unusual nicknames for him. Just a rather unusual pitching style.

A strange, funky and wonderful pitching style.

Tyler Robertson - Game of May 12, 2007 (First inning, Part I)
Tyler Robertson - Game of May 12, 2007 (First inning, Part II)
Tyler Robertson - Game of May 12, 2007 (2nd inning, Part III)
Tyler Robertson - Game of May 12, 2007 (2nd inning, Part IV)