Tim Tebow Was Nearly Drafted by the Anaheim Angels While in High School

But did you know Tim Tebow could play baseball, too? As a junior, he played outfield for Nease, hit .494 with four home runs and his team made a deep run in the State playoffs. He didn’t play as a senior so he could early-enroll with the Gators. But that didn’t stop the Anaheim Angels from showing interest in drafting Tebow, according to WEEI:

"“We wanted to draft him,” Kotchman remembered, “but he never sent back his information card. Either it never got to him, or … It’s Tim Tebow. Who knows if it got to him, and if it did we just never got it back. Otherwise were were going to take him.” But the aforementioned information card — asking a series of questions to the player, including their interest in playing professional baseball — was needed to put Tebow on the Angels’ draft board. It never came. “He had a strong arm and had a lot of power. If he would have been there his senior year he definitely would have had a good chance to be drafted,” said Red Sox Florida scout Stephen Hargett, who worked with Kotchman with the Angels. “He had leverage to his swing. He had some natural loft. He had some good power. He was a good athlete. He had had enough arm for that position. He was a left-handed hitter with strength and some size."

So if things don’t work out with the Patriots, perhaps Tebow can just slide over into Boston’s outfield? Come on, you know he could do at least as good as Ellsbury or Nava. [via WEEI]