Atlanta's Newest Pitcher
Braves 1 and 0 so far...but did you all see this article? I'd love to see this guy pitch!
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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)
