Tyler Brown, who played a key role on the 2019 national title squad, makes the VandySports 100 at No. 77.
Honors and awards: 2019 first-team All-Southeastern Conference relief pitcher
2019 second-team All-American (Collegiate Baseball, NCBWA)
2019 Stopper of the Year--one of six finalists
In the VU record book: Single-season saves: first (17, 2019)
Career saves: second (21)
Before VU: Attended Olentangy Orange (Ohio) High. Made first-team all-state as a senior, second-team all-state and first-team all-conference as a junior, and first team all-conference as a sophomore. Member of 2017 Connie Mack World Series championship team. Picked by Cincinnati in Round 26 of the 2017 MLB Draft.
Freshman (2018): Had a prominent role on a 35-27 (16-14 SEC) team that fell to Mississippi State in the Nashville Super Regional. Ranked third on the team with 20 appearances, and threw 50 pitches or more on five occasions. Appeared 20 times, with two starts. Went 0-1 with two saves, sporting a 7.50 ERA in 12 SEC regular-season innings. Had a season-high six strikeouts vs. UMass-Lowell and at Mississippi State, and registered a save with four scoreless innings in the latter. Started against Texas A&M in the SEC tournament; went five innings and allowed just one run. Was the winning pitcher in VU's 19-6 win over Clemson that clinched the Clemson Regional.
Sophomore (2019): Appeared 31 times, all in relief, for a 59-12 team that won the SEC, the SEC tournament and the national championship. Posted a 2-1 record with nine saves, 30 strikeouts, six walks and a .163 average against in 22 1/3 innings of SEC regular-season play. Did not allow a run in 15 of his last 16 appearances. Pitched 2 2/3 innings in a College World Series elimination game against Michigan, allowing just one hit. Saved VU's 3-1 win over Louisville with 1 2/3 scoreless innings to open the CWS. Threw an inning of scoreless relief with two strikeouts to eliminate Louisville in the CWS five days later. In between, pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings in a 6-3 win over Mississippi State, saving that one also. Pitched three scoreless innings to pick up a win in the SEC tournament championship game against Ole Miss. Pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings to beat Mississippi St. in the same event. Won VU's final regular-season game by throwing 2 2/3 innings with five strikeouts at Kentucky. Threw two scoreless innings to pick up a save in a 2-0 win at Alabama, and saved a 7-4 game with a scoreless inning against the Crimson Tide two days before. Saved a 3-2 game with 1 2/3 scoreless innings to open the Arkansas series. Picked up a win in a 3-2 game at Georgia with two scoreless innings. Got a two-inning, scoreless save in a 4-2 win over Tennessee. Pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings to save a 7-4 win at Texas A&M.
Junior (2020): Was the closer in VU's abbreviated season. Threw two scoreless innings in a win over Illinois-Chicago for his lone save. Thew a scoreless final inning vs. TCU for his only win.
Post-VU: Brown will await the results of the 2020 MLB Draft before deciding whether to turn pro or return to Vanderbilt for 2021. He has two years of eligibility remaining, but was recently ranked as the 100th-best prospect for the MLB Draft according to Baseball America.
Final thoughts, and why I ranked him where I did: Brown's back story (video below) is heartbreaking, but helped make Tyler Brown into what he was: An absolute rock on the 2019 national title team, one of the toughest and most dependable guys on what was probably the best athletic team ever fielded at Vanderbilt in any sport.
Every now and in 2019, he'd catch way too much plate (and possibly tip pitches, too) and consequently get knocked around like he did when he blew the final game of the Arkansas series (five runs), or nearly blow an 8-1, eighth-inning lead against Indiana State (four runs) in the 2019 Nashville Regional. (Jake Eder bailed him out of that one.) He gave up two runs in a 10-2 loss to TCU, two (in three innings) in a 14-4 win over Florida, and... that was it, as Brown was un-scored (and almost unfailingly dominate) in his other 27 appearances.
Other things of note from 2019:
- He allowed a phenomenal 0.89 runners per innings.
- His "component ERA" (what an ERA would normally be given the number and nature of base runners allowed) was 1.44. (His actual was 2.19).
- He struck out 7.2 batters for every one he walked or struck out, which was the best at VU last decade.
Brown's career was one of extremes. His 2018 *should* have been better (ERA of 6.03, component ERA of 4.55). Some of that was because 41 percent of the runners who reached against Brown scored (at the MLB level, anything over 30 percent is generally considered high), and, a .375 BABIP. But again, some of that was probably due to Brown's tendency to catch too much plate over the course of outings and/or a pitch-tipping issues.
Where was his 2020 season going? It's hard to say. He blew a lead the opener against Michigan allowing a home run to lose that one, and, lost the Cal Poly game two days later when he couldn't protect a one-run lead in the ninth. The 1.59 runners per inning allowed was more indicative of how he threw than his 2.53 ERA. My bet was on Brown to turn things around because he's Tyler Brown. But given that we'd seen some of those issues before, it's hard to say for sure.
I didn't feel comfortable ranking Brown much lower than 77th. However, the combination of the 2020 and '18 seasons--and especially this year not starting well-- plus has just 97 2/3 career innings, are why I didn't rank Brown higher. That's really not about Brown as much as it is dealing with dozens of other athletes ahead of him who accomplished impressive, and almost always, more lengthy, bodies of work and treating them fairly also.
Had this season played out and Brown turned 2020 into another 2019, I'd have put him in the top 50, with a possibility of edging into the top 40.
