Major League Baseball

Former MLB player evaluates Tim Tebow: 'He's got stupid power'

Published Nov. 15, 2016 3:07 p.m. ET

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Tom House got a half-dozen calls and texts Tuesday morning. One of his old proteges, former Florida great Tim Tebow, was back in the news. Only Tebow was making headlines not for anything football related, but because he wanted to pursue a career in professional baseball.

House has a unique perspective on this story. He’s the foremost sports biomechanics experts in the country and trained Tebow for hundreds of hours in recent years over the course of around 18 months to better develop his skills as a quarterback. House also knows plenty about the baseball world, having spent close to a decade in the Majors as a pitcher and working as a coach to Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson, among others.

“Tim’s got a chance,” House told FOX Sports. “But as far along as he is, pitch recognition is gonna be key. He’s gotta see a lot of pitches, a lot of pitches, so he can try and train his eyes to recognize what a curveball is and what a sinker is and what a slider is, so he can figure out what various pitches do. A good Major League pitcher throws three or four pitches that all look like fastballs, but they aren’t.”

Tebow, who turns 29 next week, trained with House out at USC a couple of years ago. House said he remembered watching Tebow take batting practice with the Trojans baseball team and marveled at the QB blasting 12-15 balls far beyond the outfield fence, into a part of the stadium well over 400 feet from home plate. And that occurred over about a 30-pitch BP session.

"He’s got stupid power,” House said.

Of course, House noted that was against “dead-arm” BP pitching where the balls aren’t even coming in at 80 mph.

House evoked the name of Bobby Darwin, a Major Leaguer from the 70s, as an example for Tebow. Darwin came up as a pitcher but struggled with that and was later converted to an outfielder and finally broke through at 29.

“Tim’s surprisingly flexible for as big as he is,” House said. "He can run, he can throw and he field. Learning to hit the cut-off man and that stuff will be easy for him after playing quarterback.

"I think it’s gonna be fun to see how he does. I know he’s dedicated, and it’s not like he needs the money. I’m willing to bet he’s still got that competitive edge to compete."

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