For Rangers pitching prospects Chase Lee, Tai Tiedemann and Daniel Robert, the path to Frisco has been unusual

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

An aerospace engineer, a quarterback and a right-fielder-slash-first-baseman walk into a bullpen … actually, this isn’t the premise of a joke, it’s a real description of three relief pitchers who finished their 2021 season in Frisco, and whose paths may converge again in Arlington sometime in the next year or two.

Let’s start with the aerospace engineer. When Chase Lee was drafted out of Alabama in the sixth round of the 2021 draft, it didn’t take long for the nickname to surface: “The Viper.” Nicknames are funny things — the best ones are simple, clever, and at least a little descriptive. In Lee’s case, the name came from the Alabama fanbase (who have a nickname of their own, The Gumps). When they saw Lee’s side-arm delivery, someone followed the word association from side-arm to side-winder to viper; once it hit Twitter in 2019, it stuck. But that’s the other thing about nicknames. You usually don’t get to pick your own. Sometimes — as in the case of Khris “Khrush” Davis — the recipient isn’t even that fond of it.

“A little bit of both,” Lee said with a grin when we spoke in September. “I think it’s fun, (it) gets people into it, and the fans seem to enjoy it. And a lot of the guys on the team like it … I’m not against it, but I’m not gonna make a T-shirt or anything like that.”

The fact that Lee is within *ahem* striking distance of the big leagues so soon after being drafted is remarkable. So is the degree in aerospace engineering. Combine the two, and it’s become incredibly fascinating. But it was baseball first, if you’re wondering. Well, sort of.

“I’ve been playing since I was a kid,” Lee says. “Moreso the stuff that goes with it than actually playing — the working hard, practicing, the weights, things like that. I’ve always enjoyed doing that. And then I got done with high school and was done playing baseball, so I moved on to a career in engineering. Baseball wasn’t in the future, and I was trying to set myself up for the best career, I guess. And then baseball kind of opened back up.”

What Lee means by “opened back up” is that he was a walk-on at Alabama. But his first attempt wasn’t successful. It wasn’t until he dropped his arm slot down to a full side-arm delivery that he made the team. He could have switched majors at that point, but opted not to.

“I didn’t want to change just to make baseball easier, so I finished the engineering degree,” he says. “As I got a little bit better at baseball, I got a little bit worse in school. But it’s been really helpful to have that type of background, especially with all the new technology and data and baseball … having an engineering degree really helps with being able to think critically and understand that.”

Lee admits that his background occasionally helps him communicate advanced metrics to his teammates in layman’s terms. But it also might have hurt him in other ways. Lee says when it came time to negotiate a signing bonus, the Rangers expressed doubts that baseball would be a long-term commitment, given the career opportunities his degree affords. The slot value for Lee’s sixth-round pick was $312,400. Lee signed for $75,000

“I actually had a year of eligibility left, so that helped out a little bit,” Lee says. “But really, there wasn’t much to negotiate. I needed a certain amount to play, to get my school debt covered. I got the perfect amount, and I was ready to go play. There wasn’t really much need for negotiating.”

Well, there was one bit of negotiation left. As part of the agreement, the Rangers suggested that Lee could skip A-ball altogether and see if he could succeed at Double-A Frisco.

“It got (mentioned) that they would let me start here if I would be willing to sign for a little bit less than what I wanted,” Lee explains. “I couldn’t turn down that offer … I went to Arizona for two weeks to make sure I was ready to play, but yeah, that was the plan as soon as I was picked, to start here.”

The gambit worked. In his first year in professional baseball, he pitched 17 innings in Frisco, striking out 27 hitters and walking just three while posting an ERA of 3.71 and holding opposing hitters to a .180 batting average.

Chase Lee, aka The Viper, skipped Low-A and High-A completely. Since joining Frisco he’s thrown 10.1ip. He has allowed 5 hits and has 1BB/18K. He’s a dude because his pitches move like a germaphobe at a petting zoo. pic.twitter.com/vHVNPlcvOr

— Tepid Participation (@TepidP) September 1, 2021

Alongside Lee in the Frisco bullpen at the end of the season was Tai Tiedemann. Before pursuing baseball full-time, Tiedemann was a quarterback at Long Beach Polytechnic High School, which is well-known for its high-school-to-NFL pipeline. Six current NFL players, including DeSean Jackson, Mercedes Lewis, and JuJu Schuster-Smith are among its alumni. Tiedemann was talented enough to receive scholarship offers, but instead, he opted to play baseball — he played outfield and pitched at Long Beach Poly — closer to home at Long Beach City College. After a season as a center fielder, he moved to pitching, and in his first and only season on the mound, he went 7-3 with a 2.59 ERA. He also struck out 62 and walked 27 in 80 innings — a work in progress, but impressive enough that the Rangers drafted him in the eighth round in 2016, three rounds before Joe Barlow, who ended the 2021 season as the Rangers’ closer.

“I was one of those guys that … they wanted to take their time with,” Tiedemann explains of his first year in the organization.”Coming off my first year of pitching in junior college where I threw 80 innings, they were definitely like, let’s tone it down and kind of take their time with me, which I appreciate a lot, because in hindsight, I see that I really needed that even though I was kind of itching to play some affiliate ball.”

By the end of 2018, Tiedemann’s own performance was partially to blame for his slow ascent through the minor leagues. In his second year at short-season Spokane, he struck out 49 against 35 walks in 57 2/3 innings, posting a 4.84 ERA. Tiedemann says it was that rough year that helped him find his identity as a pitcher. Instead of trying to blow his 96 mph fastball by hitters, perhaps another strategy would be more effective.

“As the years go on, I’ve developed a pretty good sinkerball,” Tiedemann says.”I’ve realized that getting groundballs and quick outs is my game, not necessarily trying to chase a strikeout. It’s been like, hey, get in there, get the quick outs, get us back up to bat and keep doing that in a long-relief setting. I did have some success as a starter, but they ultimately found that long relief out of the bullpen has been my game. So I’ve definitely fallen into that role. And I love it.”

The numbers are encouraging. After struggling with command early in his career, Tiedemann limited his walks in 2021, handing out just 18 free passes to go along with 37 strikeouts in 56 2/3 innings — though he did walk more (12) than he struck out (10) after reaching Double A. Nine of those, however, were bunched together over six innings in three games in August. That mini-meltdown led to a conversation with pitching coach Jeff Andrews. During a mound visit, Andrews asked a simple question: “What are you doing?”

“I’m just like, ‘I’m not sure! I get to two strikes quick, and I’m trying to punch guys out,'” Tiedemann recalls.

“That’s not your game. That’s not you. That’s not what you do,” Andrews replied.

“You’re right,” Tiedemann responded.

In the remaining five games, Tiedemann pitched 8 1/3 innings, allowing just one earned run and walking just two hitters.

While Lee’s background helps him process data and understand the mechanics of baseball, Tiedemann says his football days still inform his life as a pitcher.

“As a quarterback, sometimes you kind of feel alone. You have a team around you, but especially when you’re on the mound, you feel alone. Like you’re out there, and it’s just you on that mountain,” he says. “You gotta figure out a way to get that batter out. As a quarterback, you kind of have to facilitate — be the general of the team. And as a pitcher, you have the ball in your hand, every play. Every time you throw the ball, this is you, it starts with you, as a quarterback. So for me to kind of correlate my mindset as a quarterback to pitching has helped a lot because sometimes you don’t realize how mental both sports really are. Everybody has the God-given physical ability, but if you can’t be mentally aware of things … that’s when you get in trouble.”

Meanwhile, a former right fielder and first baseman was also finding himself in Frisco this year. Much of Daniel Robert’s backstory can be found in this piece by Jamey Newberg last year, but here’s a small sample:

Texas made Robert, who was already nearing his 23rd birthday, the 644th pick in the 2017 draft. He agreed to sign for a mere $5,000.

It was $5,000 he’d never see.

During the routine physical exam administered to all draft picks before they sign, the Rangers detected some damage in Robert’s elbow. An MRI confirmed the right-hander’s worst fear: He needed Tommy John reconstruction surgery. The Rangers voided the $5,000 agreement, making Robert a free agent. He sobbed when he got the news.

It wasn’t the first time injury had altered his career trajectory.

“I went to Auburn University, played first base and right field there for four years,” Robert says. “My junior year, I broke my wrist playing first base, (and I) was bored. Coach let me throw a couple bullpens, saw something that looked pretty promising, I guess. And I got lucky and got to throw a couple innings that year. Came in my senior year, threw about eight innings and blew my elbow out. So finished that year just hitting. I wasn’t good enough to get drafted as a hitter, but while I was on the mound, I kind of got lucky and threw well in front of the right people. Rangers kind of took a shot on me.”

Well, the first shot was a misfire. But by spring of 2018, Robert returned to Arizona for a tryout, and the team signed him to a minor-league deal. By the time he finally got on a mound for an affiliate, he was just a few months shy of his 25th birthday, pitching for short-season Spokane in 2019. He posted an outlandish ERA of 0.33 in 27 2/3 innings, earning a promotion to Hickory, which was the Low-A affiliate at the time. And then he was one of the thousands of minor-league players who lost the entire 2020 season to the pandemic.

In 2021, at 26 years of age, he was still a relative unknown. His numbers in (now High-A) Hickory were good — nine strikeouts against one walk — but almost nonexistent. He was promoted to Frisco after just 4 1/3 innings. Using a repertoire of a fastball and slider, Robert laid waste to his Texas League opponents, striking out 31 and walking just three hitters in 17 1/3 innings, posting a 2.08 ERA and holding opposing hitters to a batting average of .175 for the season.

While Tiedemann’s ascent has been slow and methodical, Robert’s — similar to Lee’s — has been rapid. Like the other two, he credits Andrews for helping him learn to pitch after coming to it so late. But Andrews isn’t the only one.

“Once I got to Arizona, Danny Clark helped me a lot,” Robert says. “Jeff (Andrews) has been great. (In) Hickory, Jordan Tiegs was fantastic for me this year. So it’s just kind of been learn as we go, and then they kind of step in when I lose my mechanics.”

Tiegs — who also got a lot of credit from starter Zak Kent for his great 2021 season — was just promoted from High-A pitching coach to the role of pitching coordinator.

A walk-on aerospace engineer viper, a quarterback who repeated short season, and a former right fielder and first baseman who had to try out for a minor-league pitching deal. None of the paths are boring, but all three were a big part of the Frisco bullpen this year.

“Everybody gets along really well,” Robert said as the season neared its end. “There’s not really any egos in the bullpen. Nobody really has a role right now. I would say it’s just kind of, ‘when your name is called, go out there and try and cover some innings and get the job done.’ We’re in it together, trying to make this playoff push and everybody’s relying on each other. So it’s been great. We’ve got some really good dudes out there.”

(Photo of Tai Tiedemann: Zach Del Bello / Frisco RoughRiders)