Newest Braves Pitcher

[DJlaysitup]

Wow...This is interesting:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Braves Newcomer Turning More than Heads

AJC 4/1/2011, by April Finch

While the Braves hammered out a two run win on opening day in Washington Thursday, the biggest news may be from Danville, home of their rookie league affiliate. That is because of their newest pitching prospect, Desana Tuyuca (the players call him Desi), who hails from the village of Funai on the Peruvian border. The village was not even known to the outside world until the 1970s and anthropologists have found the secretive tribe especially hard to study. Then along came Desi. Speaking broken English that he has learned since leaving the tribe last year, Desi explains that he is the first from his village to strike out into the world. As fate would have it "striking out" is exactly what Desi does best.

Braves scout Clint Gail says Desi is nothing short of a phenom. "He has excellent speed on his pitches" said Gail, "but what is unbelievable is the movement. It's the closest thing to the old dispy doodle anybody has ever seen." Gail further stated that when Desi came for a tryout they thought he was wild because the ball was always getting by the catcher. "Then we watched more closely and realized that he was actually throwing strikes but the catcher couldn't track the ball into his glove". Braves minor league catcher Cal Mitchell said he still isn't comfortable catching Desi. "The ball will break both ways on the same pitch, I've never seen anything like it" said Mitchell.

The last year has been a bit of a whirlwind for Desi, who grew up in a hut covered with palm leaves. The Funai people (same name as the village) have been fishermen and hunters for countless generations. Their technique for hunting birds and small mammals in the rainforest canopy is what has given Desi his great skill. When hunting they throw the dried out pits of the Bacaba palm fruit to bring down their prey. "Many times you have to throw around branches to hit the birds" said Desana, "and you have to throw fast to get them before they can fly away". As it turns out, the average Bacaba pit is nearly identical to a baseball in size and weight.

While Desana stands only five foot nine inches in height, he has very large hands and very powerful forearms. Anthropologist Spencer Harrison of Tulane University has theorized that this may be a physical trait that has developed within the tribe over many generations, specifically due to the type of hunting the tribe practices. Harrison said "Many tribes in South America hunt with blow guns. But the canopy is especially thick in Desana's home region and they have developed a talent for curving their throws around vines and branches. You can't do that with a blowgun."

The Braves organization has admitted to being somewhat secretive about Desana early on. Said Clint Gail "Once we realized what we had and that the guy could actually throw strikes we started putting batters up against him. We keep a chart and Desi is currently striking out 80% of the batters he has faced, more often than not on three pitches with no bat to ball contact at all." Asked about future plans for Desana, Gail said that the Braves plan to fast-track him to the majors but he will likely make stops in double A and triple A ball for the experience.

As far as secrecy, it seems that the cat is out of the bag now however. Baseball scouts are all buzzing – especially since Desana admitted that he is not the only young man in his home village who can throw like this. Gail half-jokingly concluded, "Things will sure be changing in Desi's home village now, they will have to build a palm roofed hotel for all the major league scouts who will be down there". It may also change all of major league baseball in the future.

(G. Plimpton contributed to this article)

Edited March 31, 2011 by DJlaysitup

[lethalweapon3]

April Finch, eh? Must be Sidd's daughter!

~lw3

[DJlaysitup]

April Finch, eh? Must be Sidd's daughter!

~lw3

Yeah :biggrin: ...things were a little slow at work this afternoon and I thought I should come up with an April Fools...so I updated George Plimptons old one from years ago in S.I. (I swallowed that one hook, line, and sinker).

Thought I'd post it here early in case any fellow squawkers want to copy-paste it and email it to friends tomorrow.

[lethalweapon3]

Yeah :biggrin: ...things were a little slow at work this afternoon and I thought I should come up with an April Fools...so I updated George Plimptons old one from years ago in S.I. (I swallowed that one hook, line, and sinker).

Thought I'd post it here early in case any fellow squawkers want to copy-paste it and email it to friends tomorrow.

Well you had me fooled after all... I thought that was actually an AJC writer trying to catch Braves fans napping. Well done!

As a kid, my first subscription to SI had Sidd's "curious case" in it. I was like, "darn it, why can't my Phillies find talent like this?" Funnier still were the duped Mets fans "canceling their subscriptions" in anger in the aftermath. "Sidd" had the one barefoot and the galosh thing going, the whole thing was awesome!

~lw3

[DJlaysitup]

Well you had me fooled after all... I thought that was actually an AJC writer trying to catch Braves fans napping. Well done!

As a kid, my first subscription to SI had Sidd's "curious case" in it. I was like, "darn it, why can't my Phillies find talent like this?" Funnier still were the duped Mets fans "canceling their subscriptions" in anger in the aftermath. "Sidd" had the one barefoot and the galosh thing going, the whole thing was awesome!

~lw3

I remember reading that in S.I. and telling my wife about it (we were newly married and I explained to her that it made sense to me since Sidd was channelling his inner energy + was using his whole body in the windup). Luckily she wasn't a big baseball fan, so once I realized I'd been fooled, I just never said anything more about it :rolleyes: . It did make me appreciate April Fools Day though.

One of the best of all time was done in Britian:

On April Fools Day in 1957 "Panorama", a news show on BBC aired footage of Swiss "Spaghetti Farmers" picking spaghetti from trees. The fake footage was aired as a joke, but viewers called in to find out how they could grow their own spaghetti trees. Instead of coming clean, the BBC cheekily replied, "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."

[frosgrim]

Being an anthropologist and one who has worked in Ecuador near the Peruvian border, I was like WTF? That throwing things is completely ridiculous. Then I realized the date...Good one DJ

[DJlaysitup]

Being an anthropologist and one who has worked in Ecuador near the Peruvian border, I was like WTF? That throwing things is completely ridiculous. Then I realized the date...Good one DJ

Yeah...over the years I've learned (especially from following politics) that you only need a couple simple facts (backed up by ridiculous embellishments) and you can fool most folks...but not those with direct knowledge.

I emailed this to a bunch of friends April fools morning. Even with it being 1 April the majority bought it.

One friend who lives in Gwinnett county said we really needed to keep track of this and go to the game when Desi shows up in AAA. A couple said there was no way he could learn to field his position or swing a bat that quickly. Best response was from a female friend who is a public health professional (as well as baseball fan). She wrote me back a long message explaining how concerned she was about the Funai tribe...both from a cultural and potential disease standpoint. She was so passionate about it I really felt bad having to tell her that is was an April fools joke. (I had to tell her though because I was afraid she would write the MLB Commissioner pleading that MLB leave the Funais alone).

For Mods...I had to post this in "Other Sports" for it to seem reasonable. Now that the joke is over, feel free to move it to the Lounge, or delete it altogether. :derisive:

Edited April 2, 2011 by DJlaysitup