The New York Mets would desperately love a reason to justify bringing Tim Tebow up to the majors, especially in a season where they will likely be completely out of playoff contention by August. Tebow has shown signs of improvement in Double-A this season, but has he done enough?
One pro scout who chose to remain anonymous told Zach Braziller of the New York Post this week that Tebow has gotten “better” but has plenty to improve on before he can be considered a Major League hitter.
“He is better,” the scout said. “He has shown the ability to hit the fastball. Not a double-plus fastball, but an average fastball. He has progressed. He still misses a lot of pitches down. The changeup, he doesn’t see at all.”
After a slow start with the Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies, Tebow has enjoyed a productive month of June that has his season-long statistics on the rise. He has a slash line of .306/.348/.452 over the past 21 games, but he is hitting just .256 with a .396 slugging percentage on the year. Numbers like that in Double-A aren’t exactly indicative of an MLB talent, but rival managers are taking note of Tebow’s improvement.
“I saw him last year at [Single-A] Columbia. He’s come a really long way,” Double-A Hartford manager Warren Schaeffer told the Post. “He’s a tough out right now. We had a really tough time against Tim Tebow. He hits fastballs well. He’s a strong kid. His approach has gotten a lot better. He’s spitting on pitches now he wasn’t early on this year. You can tell he works hard.
“Before, you could beat him with a lot of stuff. You beat him hard in, beat him soft away. He had a quite a few holes [in his swing] earlier on. Now the holes have gotten smaller and smaller.”
One thing Tebow doesn’t really have on his side is time. He’s 30, so some of the things managers and scouts are saying about him would be more promising if he were an up-and-coming 21-year-old. We’ve seen flashes of his power with home runs like this one, but Tebow’s work ethic may only carry him so far.
