The Triumphant Return of Jason Tyner

The Mets, under the steady hand of Steve Phillips, took Jason Tyner in the first round of the 1998 draft. In his last year at Texas A&M, he had hit .385/.418/.442 with 0 HR and 39 SB in 278 at bats.

Now, statistical analysis may not yet have realized fully mainstream acceptance, but my impression is that there isn't a GM in baseball at this point who would use a first round pick on a college outfielder who didn't walk or hit for any power at all.

But hitting singles and stealing loads of bases was enough to move him swiftly through the Mets system. After bringing the International League to it's knees in 2000 with a .321/.380/.349 line (mmmm.... similar...), Tyner got the call to Shea, and predictably excreted the worst cup of coffee in recent Mets history before being shipped to Tampa Bay.

Since then he's bounced repeatedly between the Devil Rays and AAA Durham, among other teams, basically doing the same thing all the time except for drawing more walks in the minors (because the pitchers are worse). Since 2005 he's been with the Twins/Rochester, and had been slightly above replacement level until this year.

So, a hearty welcome back to Jason Tyner. Even though he was taken waay too early, and never got any better, he was always good enough to be a fringe major league rosteree, and that's not nothin'.