Apparently Seth's 'little birdie' was a reliable source, as Jason Tyner was not tendered a contract by the Twins today. I suspect Tyner will be able to catch on as a reserve outfielder somewhere, so I don't worry too much about his personal welfare going forward.
Tyner is a decent enough 4th OF who was overexposed thanks to the Twins' lack of depth at corner OF/DH. Using games played as a rough guide to usage:
118 G -- LF/RF
37 G -- CF
30 G -- DH
When your all-glove, no-hit reserve outfielder is DH'ing almost as often as he's playing in CF, something has gone wrong with your plan. He even started at DH in two of the three 2006 postseason games, while Oakland started Frank Thomas at DH. Advantage: Oakland.
.268/.355/.447 -- AL DH, '07
.288/.359/.465 -- AL RF, '07
.275/.335/.426 -- AL LF, '07
.272/.340/.414 -- AL CF, '07
.299/.340/.356 -- Tyner, '05-07
Aside from the fact that this was a very strange year in LF in the AL (seriously, the CF'ers hit as much as the LF'ers?), Tyner's bat is below average at every position you could put him at, and his almost complete lack of power is a huge weakness, especially at DH and in the corner spots.
Anyway, I'm not here to bury Tyner. He played where the coaches told him to play, and he did it to the best of his abilities, at least as far as I can tell. I'll remember hell freezing over as one of the few highlights of the past season, so there's always that.
This makes it a lot more likely that Pridie will start the 2008 season on the 25-man roster.
I never really blamed Tyner for his performance either. He did what he could with the talents he had and I can't ever fault a guy for that. I think the problem with Tyner was his utilization by the coaching staff.
Exactly. I liked Tyner, sentimentally. He never tried to be anything he wasn't, and did what was asked of him. He didn't try to be a power hitter, and he didn't try to be a hot-shot fielder. Besides, for a number of years it was great to be able to say that I had as many major league home runs as a non-pitching member of the Twins.
(Beyond that, he seemed to be a good guy: friendly, cheerful and loved the game.)
I have to realistically think about the future, though. We have Cuddyer, Young, Kubel, Monroe, and possibly Garret Jones, Pridie, and an as-of-yet unnamed center fielder. That's way too many outfielders as it is (I suspect Pridie will be in the minors or the center fielder and Jones is lost to waivers--at least I think he's out of options, but I'm too lazy to look it up).
So, yeah, it was probably time to cut Tyner, but I'm sad about it.
I always liked that his middle name is his last name spelled backwards.
Yeah, that's one of my favorite TynyFacts. He could be the only player in baseball history who can make that claim. I kind of wonder what the circumstances were surrounding that choice.
I always knew Nomar was his father's name Ramon backwards, but I never knew Tyner's bed was Renyt.
My second favorite TynyFact (Renyt is #1)...according to his wiki page
That's priceless. What I really like about Tyner is his tenacity. He clearly loves the game, has just enough talent to be employable as long as he's cheap, and found a way to live out a dream. Here's to the TynyDH. Everybody didn't like the way he hit, but nobody liked the results.
Everybody didn't like the way he hit, but nobody liked the results.
+77.
That statement reminds me of a crack Bill Fitch made when he was coaching the Cavaliers: "We might be short, but we're slow."
I'll raise my cup to TynyPR, for sure.