Tyler Beede was on the team in 2018

STAT LINE 2 games (2 starts), 8.22 ERA / 4.33 FIP, 7.2 IP, 9 K, 8 BB, 2.22 WHIP

Tyler Beede has been in the Giants’ system since 2014, when they drafted him in the first round. At the time, Grant wrote:

With the #14 pick in the 2014 MLB Draft, the Giants selected Vanderbilt right-hander Tyler Beede . The pick was the highest selection for the team since drafting Zack Wheeler with the sixth pick in 2009, so it was important that they didn’t SCREW IT UP.

They might have screwed it up! Beede was one of the most divisive pitchers in the draft, with scouting directors all over the place on him.

The Twitter scouts added:

As Grant pointed out in response to this:

(The other two: Alex Meyer and Matt Harvey. He’s probably a healthy Matt Harvey.)

Or... he could still probably be...

So, to say the least, Beede has talent that catches every scout’s eye. Thing is, the “on paper” results have been really bad and indicative of a pitcher who has no command of the strike zone.

In 474 minor league innings (5 seasons), he’s walked 202 batters. 202! That’s a 3.82 walks per 9 innings. That’s bad. Really, bad. And, unsustainable; but, at the start of 2018, he was still 24 years old (on the verge of 25). Due to Jeff Samardzija’s pectoral tear at the end of Spring Training, they had a situation in the season’s first month where they could slot him in for a couple of starts to see what kind of a pitcher they actually had.

Role on the 2018 team

The team brought him up in a minimal pressure situation. It was the second week of the season, the rest of the roster was basically settled — he wasn’t asked to do very much except make his major league debut. He’d been riding a wave of disappointment, relative to his draft position, so his debut against Arizona on April 10th was all about him managing his own expectations.

At the time of his call-up, I wrote:

There’s definitely a Foppert or Ainsworth vibe coming off of him, but that’s more the result of his recent results... which, in fairness to him and fairness to baseball analysis, is a fair assessment.

As Roger noted in last week’s minor league Chroncast Special [...], he hasn’t shown the ability to repeat his success and use his skills to be effective over a long stretch.

The shine of being a first-round draft pick had definitely disappeared, but there remained a hope that he would show that major league-caliber stuff to justify the team’s commitment to him. Nine strikeouts in 7.2 innings certainly demonstrated that his stuff could play, but the eight walks and nine hits showed just how far he has to go. We only saw him in those two April starts and not again for the rest of the season. He didn’t even get a September call-up.

Fangraphs said of him this past May:

Beede has never developed command better than what he had in college, and his otherwise terrific stuff (92-94, touch 97, good changeup and curveball with a firm cutter) plays down because of it. He made his major-league debut this year and projects as a frustrating, but solid, No. 4/5 starter who has the stuff to turn into much more than that if a big-league pitching coach can find a way to fix his strike-throwing.

After he was sent down, Beede posted a 7.05 ERA in Triple-A (74 IP), starting only 10 games before being moved into the bullpen. The thinking is that the organization can remake him into a Kyle Crick-type reliever, lots of stuff but plenty of command/control challenges.

Role on the 2019 team

It’s possible he becomes a third or fourth name in a large trade Farhan Zaidi makes this offseason or he becomes a swingman / single-inning reliever who gets called up after the trade deadline following a bullpen trade. He could possibly get called up sooner if the reliever work agrees with him in Spring Training and the early season, but given that 3.82 walks per 9 innings, I’m thinking we’ll see him later rather than sooner, if ever again.

Final Grade: F