About the same time that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was doing what Tom Brady always does during Sunday night’s NFL conference championship game, a post suddenly popped up on Twitter out of nowhere that undoubtedly caught every Dodger fan by surprise.

No, it wasn’t breaking news of a blockbuster trade or the signing of a highly coveted free agent. In fact, it didn’t involve a major leaguer at all. What’s more, it didn’t even come from one of the major news sources who never seem to miss an opportunity to pat themselves on the back for being the first to report it. Instead, it came from a minor league player – Andrew Robinson – who reported that he had just “officially signed” with the Dodgers. I mean, how can you not immediately love this guy.

Who the heck is Andrew Robinson, you ask? All I can tell you is check out his Baseball_Reference page and you will be utterly amazed.

Robinson, who will be 30 years old on February 13, was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 12th round of the 2010 First-Year Player Draft out of Georgia Tech in Atlanta. But what is most amazing about the 6′-1″ / 185-pound right-hander is that he has yet to make his major league debut after spending eight years in the minors, of which only six games were above the Double-A level. I mean, who does that?

This most certainly isn’t a knock on Robinson; in fact, quite the contrary. How many minor leaguers can you name that had the guts to stick with it this long when most guys would have tossed in the towel after four or five years? Talk about confidence and perseverance.

But why would Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman or general manager Farhan Zaidi even give Robinson a look? Aside from the obvious economic aspect, check this out:

Over his combined eight minor league seasons – most of which were at the Advanced Single-A and Double-A levels – @ARob2627 (as he goes by on Twitter) has a career minor league record of 39-29 and 3.88 ERA. But what really jumps out at you is that he has struck out a total of 502 batters while walking only 154 for an impressive strikeout to walk rate of 3.26 over (wait for it…) 542.1 total innings pitched.

Even though Robinson began his professional career as a starting pitcher, having made 29 starts, he has appeared in 282 games in relief – including many as a set-up man and as a closer. Also worthy of note is that of the 2,312 total batters that Robinson has faced over his eight minor league seasons, he has allowed a grand total of only 54 home runs.

Robinson was among the first minor league pitchers to wear protective head gear manufactured by SST Baseball. (Photo credit – Samuel Getty)

Another interesting note about Robinson is that during the 2011 and 2012 seasons, he played for the Houston Astros Advanced Single-A affiliate Lancaster JetHawks who, of course, are fierce rivals of the Dodgers Advanced Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. As such, there is an exceptionally good chance that he faced current Dodgers Yasiel Puig and Joc Pederson, and former rehabbing Dodgers Andre Ethier, Dee Gordon, Juan Uribe, Casey Blake, Mark Ellis, Rod Barajas, Adam Kennedy, Juan Rivera, Justin Sellers and even recently re-signed former Dodger Matt Kemp. How many minor leaguers can make a claim like that?

Mind… Officially… Blown.

To this point there has been no official announcement of the Andrew Robinson signing by the Dodgers, nor has there been any mention as to whether or not the Macon, Georgia native will receive an invitation to major league spring training camp (on his birthday, no less). That being said, it’s hard to believe that he will not. Heaven knows, he’s earned it.

…not to mention the fact that he has the perfect last name for a Dodger.