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In 2011, Beede's senior year at Lawrence Academy in Groton, Massachusetts, Tyler committed to a baseball scholarship at Vanderbilt.
Tyler says Lawrence Academy is a great place to prepare for college living and getting to meet new people. It provides boarding. A friend from the summer baseball circuit, Joe Napolitano, was a sophomore at Lawrence Academy at the time, and he tried to sell Beede on the benefits of private school.
“He was looking for something with more of a college atmosphere and more competition,” says Napolitano, a junior committed to Boston College. “I told him Lawrence Academy was good for getting you ready (for college) and it was a high level of play here."
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Tyler stayed active by playing football. He first picked up the pigskin as a 7 year old and played every season until his junior year in high school. He played wide receiver, cornerback and long-snapper.
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Beede's dad, Walter, is a former June draft pick by the Chicago Cubs out of high school. He played in the minors for a few years and was a teammate of Brewers scouting director Bruce Seid.
Walter then passed his knowledge down to Tyler and his brothers. When Tyler Beede was 8, his dad taught him proper mechanics (“Always find your balance position,” recites Beede); when he was 12, he learned how to throw a curveball.
"I was born into the game. I always wanted to play. Once I got old enough to play in a league I just fell in love with it and it went from there," said the young Beede. "The last year of little league everything was easy for me. I was striking guys out. I was winning games pretty easily. I wanted to challenge myself more."
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In the offseason, Tyler works out at Cressey Performance, a baseball-specific exercise facility in Hudson, Mass., where major leaguers Kevin Youkilis and Tim Collins train.
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The Blue Jays chose Beede as their first round pick in the June, 2011 Draft, the 21st player chosen overall.
But Tyler did not sign, choosing his baseball scholarship to Vanderbilt.
"They were still far off," Beede told the Worcester Telegram and Gazette on August 15, the deadline for signing and turning pro. "They ended up getting to $2.5 million, but that still wasn't what we valued the Vanderbilt education at (which was $3.5 million). It was obviously the hardest decision I've ever had to make, but I'm tremendously excited."
And Tyler bared his soul in the form of a hip-hop song he wrote, recorded and posted on the Internet under the name “Young Beedah.” He raps, and has produced eight songs.
The amount Beede left on the table in 2011 was reportedly $2.5 million. It’s more than most people earn in their lives, so some resent Beede for walking away from it. Beede, as his lyrics illustrate, has been shaped by the experience. But rather than derail him, it has helped him grow.
After a trying freshman year, Beede went 14-1, 2.32 ERA as a sophomore and was one of three finalists for the Golden Spikes Award. His junior year has been up and down—he was 7-6, 3.42 ERA, with 88 strikeouts and 36 walks in 84 innings
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Beede, known as Young Beedah on campus at Vanderbilt, wrote and recorded a song, "Boston Strong," during the summer in 2012.
On April 20, 2013, during the Red Sox first game after the Boston Marathon bombing, catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia used the song as his walk-up music before each at-bat. Tyler had released it on YouTube and Facebook right after the tragedy.
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June 2014: Beede was the Giants first round pick, out of Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. Tyler was the 14th player chosen overall.
July 11, 2014: Beede signed with the Giants, via scout Andrew Jefferson, agreeing to terms with the club on a $2.6 million contract.
Gians scouting director Bobby Evans said after the draft: "We didn't necessarily think he would be. We still had some good names on the board, but we were very happy he was still there. For the most part, whenever you get a guy you really like No. 1, the rest [of the Draft] is somewhat of a sigh of relief."
A native of Auburn, Mass., Beede made 52 appearances (47 starts) in his three-year college career, compiling a 23-14 record and 3.56 ERA. He recorded 287 strikeouts and issued 148 walks in 286 collegiate innings. He was 8-8 with a 4.05 ERA with 116 strikeouts in 113 1/3 innings this past season for the Commodores.
"Moving forward is all about preparing myself for each step," Beede said. "Whatever level I go to, the goal is just execute pitching plans while I'm there, throw quality pitches and be myself so that by the time I get to the big leagues, I'm prepared to stay there for the long haul." (Ryan Hood MLB.com 7/11/2014)
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In 2015, the Baseball America Prospect Handbook rated Beede as the second-best prospect in the Giants organization, behind only C Andrew Susac. And #2 again in 2016, behind only SS Christian Arroyo.
But the Giants moved Tyler up to the #1 prospect in 2017. He was at #3 before 2018 spring camps opened, but fell to #28 in the spring of 2019.
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In 2015, Beede was selected by the Giants to play in the Futures Game.
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Tyler Beede plans to dabble as a rapper, not double as one. Beede intends to launch a website (tylerbeede.com) that will feature about a half-dozen of his recordings, reflecting an interest in music that has gripped him since high school.
"Music is just a little side hobby that kind of takes my mind off of things that are going on within the game or things off the field, too. It's nothing I take extremely seriously, but it's definitely something I enjoy doing."
Beede, acknowledged that his music would fit most easily into the category of Christian rap. It's an outlet, he said, that enables him to "portray and voice who I am off the field—my values, my faith and everything of that nature. It gives me an opportunity to sort of humanize myself, be transparent about who I am and what I believe in."
Beede counts artists such as J. Cole and Mike Stud among his influences. Like most rappers, he has an alias, "Beedah," a moniker that a friend gave him in junior high school. "It kind of just stuck from there," Beede said. (Chris Haft is a reporter for MLB.com. - February 20, 2016)
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One of the keys to Beede’s big step forward in 2016 was his emphasis on conditioning. In a January, '16 camp that included several big leaguers, Beede won the Giants’ award for the hardest worker.
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April 10, 2018: Two hours after he was removed from his Major League debut against the Diamondbacks, which the Giants won, 5-4, Tyler wore his full uniform as he chatted with friends and relatives outside the team's clubhouse. So, you were so thrilled about your Major League debut that you didn't want to shed your work clothes, right, Tyler?
Wrong. He put his jersey back on to give his loved ones what they wanted as they posed for pictures. "For family photos, that was probably the play," Beede said.
Beede didn't satisfy just the folks who came to see him. He kept the score close during his four-inning stint, allowing a pair of first-inning runs but little else. Beede received no decision, but he certainly contributed to San Francisco's victory.
"A lot of thoughts come to my mind, but at the end of the day, I kept the team in a position to win," said Beede, who surrendered three hits, walked five and struck out three besides yielding those two runs. I was nervous probably prior to the game," Beede said. "Once I got out there, I settled in." (Haft - mlb.com)
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April 10, 2018 was a night for the memory books for freestyler rapper/Giants pitcher Tyler Beede, who made his MLB debut against the D-backs. He threw four innings of three-hit ball while allowing two runs, all under the watchful eye of his mother, Cheryl. The Giants went on to win, 5-4.
At the start of the bottom of the third inning, NBC Sports Bay Area reporter Amy Gutierrez caught up with Cheryl, who explained how Tyler told her that he would be coming up from Triple-A to pitch for the Giants. While discussing the emotions of his debut, though, Gutierrez pointed out that the PA announcer was about to say Beede's name for his first MLB at-bat.
Cheryl Rivers was so happy and thrilled about it that she asked if she could pause the interview to watch her son's debut at the plate. Gutierrez obliged, of course, and Cheryl got to snap a picture of this dream come true. It didn't matter that Beede went down on strikes. That's a memory he'll have forever—and so will his mom. (Mearns - mlb.com - 4/10/2018)
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In 2019, Tyler accomplished a significant off-the-field goal, completing his degree in organizational management five years after he was drafted by the Giants in 2014.
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Nov. 2020: Giants right-handed reliever Tyler Rogers got married. And the officiant? Tyler Beede.It always makes me happy when teammates prove to be great friends off the field as well. It’s pretty clear that Beede and Rogers have more in common than just being right-handed Giants pitchers named ‘Tyler.’
Congratulations to Rogers and his wife, Jennifer Ryan.