William "Steel Arm Bill" Tyler doesn't get much love at all from my usual NeL sources. Even James Riley limits himself to one paragraph, an entry that ends with the mention of some trouble with the law involving the death of a white man.
Perhaps this is the reason for his relatively short career.
Seamheads has him listed as having played just 107 games between 1925 and 1930, finishing with a 10-12 record and 3.81 ERA. By their calculations, this was good for a tidy enough 8.9 WAR.
My job when formulating profiles is made harder the less the anecdotal data available. For a player like this for whom that total is virtually none, I have to get creative.
It was clear from his career stats that Bill was a fairly handy pitcher. He imported with a decent pitch repertoire, which I kept but edited to more realistic levels. This being a "what-if" exercise, his lack of longevity is not within my purview. Nor the reason for it. So these ratings merely get transposed into a career that lasts as long as it lasts. I think how it turned out is fairly representative of his abilities.
Bill was a member of the EL's inaugural draftee class and was selected by Memphis in the 9th Round with the 164th overall pick. He spent 1968 in the bullpen, where he struggled. In 1969, however, he has done well enough to earn a spot in the rotation, where he seems to be thriving.
His most recent start, a 3-hitter in a win over Birmingham
was both his first CG and first shutout, and leaves his stat line looking thus:
We'll check back in along the way to see how he is progressing.