Sept. 2, 2008
NORMAL, Ill. - Former Illinois State pitcher Tyler Cox had his sizzling start to professional baseball extended Tuesday, when the left-handed pitcher was promoted to the State College Spikes, the Pittsburgh Pirates' New York-Penn League affiliate.
Cox was promoted with eight teammates after the Pirates' Gulf Coast League affiliate was eliminated from the playoffs. The Danville, Ill., native was 2-3 with a 1.79 ERA before the call-up and will be used to bolster the Spikes' bullpen in the final week of the regular season.
Cox was selected by the Pirates in the 35th round of the Major League baseball draft in June after posting a 7-5 record and 3.96 ERA in two seasons for the Redbirds.
"Leading up to the draft, it was a pretty crazy time," Cox said. "You think you're going to get drafted, but you never know for sure because you've got a lot of people telling you things. You just try to decipher the facts."
Knowing he wouldn't get drafted until the later rounds, if he was selected at all, Cox still watched every pick of the draft on ESPN and on MLB's DraftTracker.
"I wanted to know when (former Redbird teammate Kevin) Dubler was going to get drafted," Cox said. "I knew I wasn't going to be that high, but I wanted to see where he was going to go. I pretty much never stopped looking at DraftTracker until my name popped up."
A year ago, pitching in the big leagues or even pitching in college was up in the air for Cox. He logged more than 100 innings between his junior season at Illinois State and summer ball with the Quincy Gems and entered fall ball with discomfort in his throwing arm.
Cox consulted a doctor and underwent a procedure called an ulnar nerve transposition - moving the nerve that connects his hand and spinal cord to a new position at the elbow in order to relieve the aggravation.
Uncertain about his future, Cox conferred with Illinois State head coach Jim Brownlee and received the same boost to his confidence he had received when the skipper told him he could play an important role as an incoming junior college transfer.
"I talked to coach Brownlee about the possibility of getting drafted or if this surgery was going to put me by the wayside - was I going to be done for," Cox said. "He said no. He told me to work my butt off, and come out and have a good year. I rehabbed and things seemed to take care of themselves throughout the year."
Cox was sent to Bradenton, Fla., after signing and found immediate success with the Pirates. Cox didn't allow an earned run and posted a 13-to-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio through his first 10 innings.
In 13 appearances for the GCL Pirates, Cox limited batters to a .217 batting average and was tagged for just nine runs in 45.1 innings - a number that's even more impressive considering Cox gave up seven runs combined in two of his worst outings of the summer.
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Due to scheduling and his spot in the pitching order, Cox made five consecutive appearances against the GCL Twins, the league's top-hitting team. During that stretch, Cox struck out 17 batters and limited the Twins to 13 hits in 21 innings while posting a 1.28 ERA.
Cox credits his pitching coach, Miguel Bonilla, good health, and his experience as factors in his recent success.
"We're on a strict run program and we do a lot of throwing," Cox said. "It all starts with the throwing program that I do every day - my arm feels strong. Everything's falling into place for me. I really get along with coach Bonilla. He's a real personable guy."
This summer, Cox has worked with the Pirates on keeping his weight back, separating his hands and taking his head towards the target - all in an effort to create consistency with his arm slot. The improvement is evident in his walk totals, 11 in 45.1 innings of work.
Cox is expected to take the mound at some point during tonight's State College game against Batavia and has already taken one step closer to a dream of playing in the major leagues.
"It's great," Cox said of playing professional baseball. "When I was little, my dad used to ask me what I wanted to do and I said I had no idea. As I started to excel in baseball through high school and college, he would still ask me what I wanted to do. Eventually it came to the point where I said, `you know dad, I think I want to play baseball. I really want to do that.'
"It's always been a dream, but when it actually became a reality and set in, I was like `wow, I get to show up to work every day and play baseball.' Down in rookie ball it's hard, it's tiresome, we don't have a stadium, no fans really, but still getting to show up and play ball every day is a great feeling."
