The unlikely baseball saga of right-handed pitcher Tanner Duncan may one day inspire a song. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine a “Ballad of Tanner Duncan” by, say, Chris Stapleton climbing the charts.

For that matter, the unlikely ascension of any undrafted free agent to his MLB debut with the Houston Astros may even warrant an eventual screenplay.

The Sound of Science

The process of scouting and drafting prospective personnel is a well-documented inexact science. For every obvious and conclusive talented player in any sport who goes in the first round and proceeds to have a Hall of Fame career, many “can’t-miss” players tank and retire early.

Still, there are the far too few feel-good stories of the undrafted free agent who signs and then flourishes with any given team. Houston Texans football fans will remember undrafted free agent running back Arian Foster, who played his college ball at the University of Tennessee. Left undrafted in 2009, he was signed by the Texans. Retiring in 2016, Foster holds the Texans’ franchise records for rushing yards and rushing touchdowns.

The number of NFL scouts and talent procurement “experts” who whiffed on Foster and his talent and drive are numerous.

Time will tell if the eventual big league career of Tanner Duncan will leave a trail of tears behind even more scouting directors who swung and missed.

Setting the Stage for Stephen Tanner Duncan

He was three when he had his first taste of diamond action. T-ball teams in Duncan’s hometown of Tabor City, NC, led eventually to dreams of a Division I college baseball opportunity 15 years hence.

“Like any kid who was one of the top players on his high school team [South Columbus High School], I thought I was better than that,” Duncan told the QC Times in July, remembering the thunderous round of indifference that followed his senior year.

“I had a couple of offers out of high school, smaller schools, a couple of JUCOs, Division III programs, that type of thing,” Duncan continued, in his distinctive, “aw-shucks” Carolina drawl that would be at home in the Mayberry streets of ‘The Andy Griffith Show.’

It’s at this point, like fellow Carolinian Michael Jordan being cut from his basketball team as a high school sophomore, where the suddenly rejected player discovers his own bootstraps and the urgent need that arises to use them.

“I Needed a Team”

Duncan decided to follow some friends to East Carolina University, where he attempted, a couple of times, to join the intercollegiate team as a walk-on unsuccessfully.

Splitting time between the bullpen and rotation in his debut pro season, Duncan had a 1-2 record with a 2.13 ERA in 11 Rookie-level Gulf Coast League games in 2017.

He extended that success for the Class-A Quad Cities River Bandits this past season. Working exclusively as a reliever, Duncan worked toward a 4-3 record, with a 2.35 ERA and a 0.93 WHIP in 46 innings, while holding Midwest League batters to a .121 average.

“Once I got out there, I experienced some success and that calmed my nerves,” Duncan said of his initial time in the Houston organization. “I saw that this was something I could do. I come from a background where I never really had much instruction, but the Astros have really taught me a lot.”

“Tanner has a very playable fastball, especially for the velocity that it has,” Quad Cities pitching coach Graham Johnson recently explained to MiLB.com in early August. “He locates it well. He knows how to use it. Obviously, he’s an extremely hard worker, and his slider has come a long way in the last month. He also has a very usable changeup and a very usable curveball to go along with those two pitches.”

Despite Duncan’s lack of college baseball experience, Johnson doesn’t see him as a risky signing for Houston.

“When our guys saw him, he had a low-90s arm,” Johnson said. “Now, is it the usual path to get to pro ball, the way he did it? Absolutely not, but he’s a resilient guy.

“He’s not taking a backseat to anybody because of the path he took,” Johnson continued. “He’s done a good job of not feeling over-matched when he [went up] against hitters from the big schools who [were] highly touted. We have some really talented guys in our organization, and he fits right in the mix with them.”

Duncan wrapped up the 2018 season with 8.1 innings for Advanced-A Buies Creek, and his 2019 campaign will pick up at that level’s new Carolina League Fayetteville location.

“That’s what I was dedicated to and driven to do. I had that mentality. I knew I was good enough.”–Tanner Duncan