Tuesday, September 11, 2001
Tyler Yates wasn't too surprised, but he was definitely happy when the Oakland Athletics promoted him to their Triple-A team in the Pacific Coast league for the final week of the season. Yates closes in on
final hurdle -- the bigsBy Al Chase
achase@starbulletin.comOnly once, in 1999, had Yates not advanced to a higher level during his four-year professional career.
He had finished the 2000 season at Midland, Texas, in the Double-A Texas League and sensed that would be his starting point this season.
"Just by the way things were, I knew I wasn't ready for Triple-A. My consistency and my command weren't ready for that level," Yates said.
One thing that wasn't in question for the 6-foot-4 right-handed closer was his durability. He appeared in 47 games in 1999, 52 last year and had 56 relief outings for the Midland RockHounds this season before joining the Sacramento RiverCats, a team headed for the PCL playoffs.
After driving much of the day from Midland to Tucson, Ariz., his first Triple-A appearance that night produced his 17th save of the year as Yates pitched 213 innings of two-hit, shutout ball.
"I had a veteran catcher who knew the batters, so all I had to do was go out, throw what he called and be aggressive," Yates said.
Also, this season, the Athletics told Yates to work on developing a third pitch.
His fastball arrives at home plate somewhere between 93 and 97 mph. He has command of a slider that can reach 91 mph, but he prefers to keep it in the 87 to 89 range because the pitch has more depth, more break. At Hawaii-Hilo, he threw a circle change-up, but that wasn't effective at the pro level.
"As I picked up velocity, the circle change became more of a batting practice fastball," Yates said. "I've basically used the fastball and slider the last year and a half.
"Oakland wants me to work on the split finger. I started working on it two months ago, mostly in the bullpen. It's only been three weeks since I took it out of the pen. The Oakland organization wants me to throw it to each batter at least once."
At Sacramento, Yates will be teamed with a pitching coach, Rick Rodriguez, who knows the ins and outs of the split finger.
"It's still not a pitch I consider as being in my repertoire," Yates said. "I'm still working on the grip and the release point. It needs a lot of fine-tuning."
An avid surfer, the Kauai High School product says the sport has helped considerably with his upper body development.
"I think it is great for the shoulders," he said. "Paddling out is pretty much the same motion as pitching."
Yates will have to wait a little longer this year to enjoy the Kauai surf. The Athletics are sending him to instructional league to perfect the split finger.
At Midland, he was 4-6 with a 4.31 earned run average and struck out 61 batters in 6223 innings. The Texas League is known as a hitters league and it is common for pop-up to shortstop to finally be caught by the left-field wall at Midland's Christensen Stadium.
"The wind blows out 30-40 mph all the time. Anything in the air to left is a homer," Yates said. "If you took away one week in the middle of the season where I went into a funk and gave up 12 earned runs, the ERA would be in the low 3s. Sometimes, the ERA doesn't tell the whole story."
The next story Yates would like to see is when he makes one more jump, this time to the big leagues.
Height: 6 feet 4 inches. Weight: 225 pounds. Throws: Right. Bats: Right. Tyler Yates’ career statistics
Schools: Kauai H.S., Hawaii-Hilo
Year, Team, League G IP W L Pct. H ER BB SO ERA 1998-Athletics, Arizona 15 23 0 0 .000 28 10 14 20 3.91 1998-Southern Oregon, Northwest 2 213 0 0 .000 2 0 0 1 0.00 1999-Visalia, California 47 8213 2 5 .286 98 50 35 74 5.47 2000-Modesto, California 30 5623 4 2 .667 50 18 23 61 2.86 2000-Midland, Texas 22 2613 1 1 .500 28 18 15 24 6.15 2001-Midland, Texas 56 6223 4 6 .400 66 30 27 61 4.31 2001-Sacramento, Pacific Coast 4 513 1 0 1.000 3 0 1 3 0.00 Minor League Totals 176 25813 12 14 .462 275 126 115 244 4.38
Highlights
>> Drafted in 23rd round (675th overall) by the Oakland Athletics, June 3, 1998. Signed June 10, 1977.
>>Named to the West team for the Texas League all-start game. Yates was the winning pitcher.
This is part of a series profiling professional
baseball players from Hawaii. Tomorrow, former
Hawaii Rainbow Dusty Bergman will be featured.