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Post by chinmusic on Jun 29, 2020 17:22:03 GMT -8
This is interesting. In the 5-round MLB Draft, Only two Oregon/SW Washington prep players were selected, Mick Abel and Dylan MacLean. However, a new free agent signing now brings the total to 3.
The San Francisco Giants have signed a surprising free agent out of our neighborhood that may not have been discovered and/or recruited by OSU, although that's difficult to imagine in today's information rich recruiting environment.
Tyler "Ty" Forner is a 5-11, 195 pound outfielder from Camas, WA. high school. Forner might be more known for his line-backing ability for the 5A Washington state champion, Camas Papermakers than for his skills as a professional baseball prospect.
Did the Beaver baseball coaches ever recruit him? If they did, I never saw reference to it in my internet travels. They may have looked but moved on. I believe he had baseball offers from Wazzu and Pepperdine.
A liitle bit about him: He bats R, throws L. He's strong - has some impressive lift totals on the Bench and in the Squat. He's fast - has recorded several 60's in the 6.61 to 6.69 range. Exit velo with the bat is 89 which is modest, and outfield throwing velo is 76 to 78 which at best is left field only. A move to the infield seems improbable, he's left handed and likely too short to play 1B.
Anyone care to shed some light on this individual ?
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Post by hawksea on Jun 30, 2020 7:04:27 GMT -8
He had no desire to go to college and planned on signing if any team made him an offer. He believes he can make it to the majors in 3-4 years and wanted to get started in the minors right away. He figured he can always go back to college later on and wanted to give it a shot now.
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Post by qbeaver on Jun 30, 2020 14:03:40 GMT -8
He had no desire to go to college and planned on signing if any team made him an offer. He believes he can make it to the majors in 3-4 years and wanted to get started in the minors right away. He figured he can always go back to college later on and wanted to give it a shot now. Exactly...I have no knowledge of this kid,but I'm friends who a guy who signed with the Giants organization straight out of high school. He didn't like school,and wanted to get started in his dream of making the majors. Not all kids find college and academia an avenue to reaching their dreams at 18 years old. |
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Post by chinmusic on Jul 1, 2020 19:35:40 GMT -8
Yes, the motivation to turn professional after graduating was made clear in every article written about him after signing with the Giants.
The question I raised still hasn't been answered.
Did Oregon State ever recruit him ?
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Post by hawksea on Jul 2, 2020 9:35:12 GMT -8
Yes, the motivation to turn professional after graduating was made clear in every article written about him after signing with the Giants. The question I raised still hasn't been answered. Did Oregon State ever recruit him ? I have no idea if we did, but I'm guessing not. What I have heard is that a couple of D1 schools recruited him (he is also a skilled football player), but it sounds like he was pretty adamant about going pro and let schools know that. I am sure OSU at least talked to him, but I don't know that it went anywhere. |
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Post by chinmusic on Jul 2, 2020 12:37:00 GMT -8
I could envision a scenario like this.
OREGON STATE: Hi Tyler, we are Oregon State Baseball. We are interested in you and would like to recruit you.
FORNER: Thanks, but I have no interest in playing college baseball. I want to play pro ball right away.
That would answer the question I have - did we contact him and did we show any interest?
My curiosity stems from never seeing his name mentioned anywhere in the baseball channels.
Had the Giants not appeared and offered him a contract, what would he have done?
His speed certainly would have allowed him to convert to safety providing he could handle the coverage assignments. That might have been an option at the Sub-Division level since I didn't see any mention of D-1 football offers.
His Pro baseball motivation was probably best suited at a Junior College where he could be drafted after one year.
The Pandemic will help him. He gets to spend a year in Arizona playing instructional baseball prior to a class A assignment somewhere in 2021, assuming the minor leagues survive the chaotic conditions they find themselves in.
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Post by spudbeaver on Jul 3, 2021 13:15:18 GMT -8
I coached Tyler in youth football. Great athlete and a great kid. Hope he makes it with the Giants. Tall order.
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Post by chinmusic on Jul 3, 2021 16:42:22 GMT -8
Forner is listed on the SF Giant's Black team playing in Scottsdale in the Arizona Rookie League. His 2021 stats YTD show he's played in 2 games going 0-5 at the plate.
He's listed as an outfielder, at 5-11, 195 and 19 years old.
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Post by greshambeaver on Jul 6, 2021 13:30:06 GMT -8
I have no information, except what you provided on this kid! I do wonder if the fact that he is a lefty that bats right handed had anything to do with his relatively small and unnoticed recruiting. Why would a left hander hit right handed, it makes little sense to me... Now I get the fact that Ricky Henderson was one of the greatest basestealers and leadoff men in MLB history, and was one of the best players of his tenure in the big leagues. But other than Ricky, how many lefthanders that hit right handed have done much in MLB history? none that I can come up with, I am sure there must be at least one or two more, but I can't remember them. Please enlighten me if you can...
Also, who is to say that Ricky would have been even better if he had hit lefthanded or been a S.H.? My guess is he would have added a lot of stats to the unbelievable stats we see now! His on base percentage alone may have increase by as much as 4 to 7 % because of the extra 1 or 2 steps!
I am thinking this kid may have been overlooked a bit because of that fact A lefty hitting right handed makes very little sense to me, unless that person has the athetic skills of a Terry Baker, who was totally ambidextrous..... Played baseball right handed and played football and basketball primarily left handed. We sometimes don't apprciate what a special athlete Terry Baker was...
Anyway, just my outside amature chance guess on this situation!
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cake
Sophomore
Posts: 1,598 
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Post by cake on Jul 6, 2021 14:16:56 GMT -8
I have no information, except what you provided on this kid! I do wonder if the fact that he is a lefty that bats right handed had anything to do with his relatively small and unnoticed recruiting. Why would a left hander hit right handed, it makes little sense to me... Now I get the fact that Ricky Henderson was one of the greatest basestealers and leadoff men in MLB history, and was one of the best players of his tenure in the big leagues. But other than Ricky, how many lefthanders that hit right handed have done much in MLB history? none that I can come up with, I am sure there must be at least one or two more, but I can't remember them. Please enlighten me if you can... Also, who is to say that Ricky would have been even better if he had hit lefthanded or been a S.H.? My guess is he would have added a lot of stats to the unbelievable stats we see now! His on base percentage alone may have increase by as much as 4 to 7 % because of the extra 1 or 2 steps! I am thinking this kid may have been overlooked a bit because of that fact A lefty hitting right handed makes very little sense to me, unless that person has the athetic skills of a Terry Baker, who was totally ambidextrous..... Played baseball right handed and played football and basketball primarily left handed. We sometimes don't apprciate what a special athlete Terry Baker was... Anyway, just my outside amature chance guess on this situation!
I remembered Cody Ross, because I'm a Giants fan, but couldn't think of more, so that got me researching. There have only been 5 since 1900 to play at least 1000 games throwing lefty and batting righty. It sounds like, at least from the guys I could find any info on, most are truly ambidextrous or they were taught to throw left handed due to the potential value of that, but they do everything else right handed. Or with Henderson, he just thought since all his friends batted right handed when he was a kid, you had to bat right handed.
Henderson, Ross, Cleon Jones, Hal Chase, and Ryan Ludwick. Mark Carreon is next closest, he played over 700+ games that way. That's the only 6 over 500 games played since 1900.
Some other interesting stuff, Babe Ruth batted and threw left handed, ate and wrote right handed. Brooks Robinson and Craig Biggio were the opposite, though Biggio was also a switch hitter.
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Post by greshambeaver on Jul 10, 2021 9:14:27 GMT -8
I have met or seen many folks that do different tasks with different hands, lots of people will do everything lefthanded except write, I suspect some of them are products of Catholic school education, back when the Nuns thought lefthanndedness was a sign of the devil... LOL!
Not many baseball playes threw left and hit right as you have proven...
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