‘Freak’ meeting paved Cyr’s way
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. >> High school pitcher Tyler Cyr didn’t care how long he would have to wait in the autograph line.
Like every Bay Area baseball fan in the late 2000s, Cyr was obsessed with Giants ace Tim Lincecum and he desperately wanted the chance to meet him.
“I went to FanFest, and I waited in line for what felt like two hours,” Cyr said.
The year was either 2009 or 2010, but by the time Cyr made the trek from his home in Fremont to China Basin, Lincecum had already pocketed at least one Cy Young Award and would soon anchor a staff that brought San Francisco its first World Series title.
When Cyr reached the front of the line, a gracious major league pitcher had his Sharpie ready.
“I brought a baseball up there with me,” Cyr remembers. “He said, ‘Hey, what’s your name, do you want me to sign it?’”
Unlike everyone else in attendance that day, Cyr declined. He had a different reason to seek out Lincecum.
“And I said, ‘No, I just want to know how you hold your changeup,’” Cyr said. “Looking back, I probably should have gotten an autograph.”
What Cyr left the ballpark with that day turned out to be far more important than a piece of signed memorabilia. The Kennedy High-Fremont pitcher had a grip to the off-speed pitch that would help set his baseball career in motion.
Cyr doesn’t use the same mechanics as “The Freak,” because as he points out, Lincecum was “one of a kind.” As he enters his sixth professional baseball season, Cyr does use the splitfinger changeup grip that helped turn Lincecum into one of the most dominant pitchers of his generation.
Cyr said the long process of mastering the pitch began in junior college at Skyline in San Bruno.
“My junior college coach approached me and said, ‘Hey, what do you got on this changeup,’” Cyr said. “I was like, ‘That’s actually the changeup Tim Lincecum throws.’ He said, ‘OK, let it rip.’”
He brought the pitch with him to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, a school that has produced only two other major league players — Mariners pitcher Zac Grotz and Cardinals pitcher Daniel Poncedeleon. When Poncedeleon received the call to the big leagues from St. Louis in June, 2018, Embry-Riddle’s baseball program issued a press release that also mentioned Cyr by name.
“We’ve had a lot of guys in this program that have had professional baseball ability,” ERAU coach Randy Stegall said. “But two have stood out as guys that have had no-brainer big league ability: Tyler Cyr and Daniel Poncedeleon.”
Three years after the Giants made Cyr their 10th-round draft choice, the reliever appeared to be on the fast track to the big leagues. He posted a 2.19 ERA in 47 games at Double-A Richmond in 2017 and received a coveted invitation to major league spring training in 2018.
That’s when Cyr’s elbow started to ache.
“2018, I was going through a lot of pain, but it was my first experience here so you just go out and play,” Cyr said. “But I came to find out the fracture in my elbow was separating it, so we had to get it fixed.”
Cyr underwent surgery to repair the elbow fracture after throwing eight games in 2018. The following spring, Cyr threw his first live batting practice and it went off without a hitch.
When he went to finish the day with sprints in the outfield, he pulled his hamstring and had to shut everything down.
After a slightly delayed start to his 2019 minor league season, Cyr re-established himself as a promising relief option in the Giants’ system. He appeared in 38 games last year (37 with Double-A Richmond) and finished with a 1.97 ERA and 59 strikeouts in 50 1/3 innings.
The local product, who grew up adoring the Giants, received his second invitation to major league spring training and made a strong impression on the coaching staff with his ninth-inning outing in a 3-3 tie against the Brewers on Wednesday.
Cyr has the capability to reach back and hit 98-99 mph with his fastball, but against Milwaukee, he recorded back-to-back strikeouts by relying mostly on a sharp 94-mph cutter and that devastating changeup Giants fans have seen before.
The pitch that looks like a fastball all the way and darts out of the strike zone at the last second? That’s the changeup Lincecum gave to Cyr.
ORIGINAL SAN FRANCISCO GIANT DIES >> Johnny Antonelli, a former World Series hero and the best pitcher on the first San Francisco Giants team, died Friday. He was 89. The sixtime National League AllStar and two-time 20-game winning left-hander died in his hometown of Rochester, New York.
Antonelli helped the New York Giants win the 1954 World Series, striking out nine in a Game 2 complete-game win before saving their Game 4 win over the Indians for a sweep.
Antonelli was still the team’s ace after the Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958 — he had a team-leading 16 victories while posting a team-low 3.28 ERA for the third-place Giants.
He finished his Giants career with a 108-84 record and 3.13 ERA in 280 games (219 starts) during his seven years. He retired before the 1962 season.
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• Johnny Cueto took the mound for the first time in Cactus League play in Friday’s late game against the Rockies.