Brien Taylor

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Not to be confused with Brian Taylor (disambiguation) or Bryan Taylor (disambiguation).
Brien Taylor
Pitcher
Born: (1971-12-26) December 26, 1971 (age 52)
Beaufort, North Carolina, U.S.
Bats: Left
Throws: Left
Career highlights and awards
  • First overall draft pick,
    1991 Major League Baseball Draft

Brien McKeiver Taylor (born December 26, 1971) is an American former

minor league baseball. He spent seven seasons in the minor leagues, primarily with the New York Yankees organization. In his career, he had a win–loss record of 22–30, a 5.12 earned run average (ERA), and 425 strikeouts
.

Born in

Major League Baseball Draft and never play in the major leagues, along with Steve Chilcott and Brady Aiken
.

Early life and MLB draft

Taylor was born in

1991 Major League Baseball Draft, and he signed Scott Boras as an advisor, who said of him in 2006, "Brien Taylor, still to this day, is the best high school pitcher I've seen in my life."[3]

The Yankees offered Taylor $300,000 to sign a minor league contract, the typical amount given to the first overall draft choice at that time.

University of Texas in the process. The Taylors held out for a three-year $1.2 million contract, even though they had less leverage because Brien's poor grades in high school prevented him from getting a major college scholarship offer.[4] They threatened the Yankees that Taylor would not sign and instead attend Louisburg College, a local junior college, to convince the Yankees to agree to their terms.[1][5] The Yankees were without the official services of owner George Steinbrenner, who was serving a suspension at the time, but through the media, Steinbrenner said that if the Yankees let Taylor get away, "they should be shot."[6] Taylor signed for $1.55 million on August 26, the day before his classes were set to begin. Further delay would have meant the deal could not be signed until after the school year ended, which coincided with the following year's draft.[4][5]

Baseball career

The Yankees originally planned to bring Taylor up through the minor leagues rapidly, as the Mets did with

Osceola Astros in an 8–5 victory, as well as a 12-strikeout, two-hit performance in September against the West Palm Beach Expos.[8][9] For the season, Taylor had a 6–8 win–loss record, a 2.57 ERA, and 187 strikeouts in 161+1⁄3 innings pitched.[10]

The next year, Taylor took the stage for the Double-A

Eastern League with 102 walks issued.[2] In 1994, he was expected to pitch for the Triple-A Columbus Clippers of the International League, and start for the Yankees to begin the 1995 season at the latest, dependent on how well he would have performed in spring training.[2] After the season ended, the Yankees wanted Taylor to take part in an instructional league to work on his fundamentals. Taylor declined to attend the camp, and instead chose to return to his home in North Carolina.[12]

On December 18, 1993, Taylor was injured while defending his brother Brenden in a fistfight.

capsule and glenoid labrum of Taylor's shoulder, which caused him to miss the entire 1994 season.[14]

Taylor returned to baseball in 1995 and spent the season with the Rookie-level

40-man roster as a result.[16]

Taylor spent the next two seasons in Greensboro. In 1997, he walked 52 batters in 27 innings, going 1–4 with a 14.33 ERA in eight games, and in 1998, he went 0–1 with a 9.59 ERA in 13 games.

Cleveland Indians signed him to a contract and placed him with the Class-A Columbus RedStixx. In 2+2⁄3 innings pitched over five games for Columbus, he gave up five hits, nine walks and eight runs for a 27.00 ERA.[10]
(Altogether, Taylor's ERA was 3.02 in 324+1⁄3 innings before the injury, and 11.24 in 111+1⁄3 innings after.)

After baseball

After retiring from baseball, Taylor moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, with his five daughters and worked as a UPS package handler, then worked as a beer distributor.[1] By 2006, he had moved back home and was working as a bricklayer with his father.[3]

In March 2012, Taylor was charged with cocaine trafficking after undercover narcotics agents purchased a large quantity of cocaine and crack cocaine from him over a period of several months.[18] He was federally indicted on cocaine trafficking charges in June 2012.[19] Taylor pleaded guilty in August 2012 and was sentenced to 50 months in prison, followed by three years' supervised release; he was released on September 12, 2015.[20]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Coffey, Wayne (July 14, 2006). "Tracking Down Brien Taylor". Lawrence Journal-World. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
  2. ^ a b c d Anderson, Dave (March 7, 1994). "Baseball: Sports of The Times; Brien Taylor Goes From Being Yanks' Future to Invisible Phenom". The New York Times. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
  3. ^ a b c d e Passan, Jeff (June 5, 2006). "The arm that changed the Major League draft". Yahoo! Sports. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
  4. ^ a b Curry, Jack (August 23, 1991). "Baseball; Yankees' No. 1 Pick Packing for College". The New York Times. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
  5. ^ a b Kurkjian, Tim (September 9, 1991). "A New Standard". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved June 7, 2006.
  6. Sun-Sentinel
    . p. 3C.
  7. ^ a b "All-Time Top 100 Prospects". Baseball America. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  8. Sun-Sentinel
    . July 3, 1992. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  9. ^ "Yankees' Taylor Shuts Out Expos". Sun-Sentinel. September 2, 1992. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  10. ^ a b c d "Brien Taylor Minor League Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  11. ^ Curry, Jack (March 5, 1993). "Taylor Shows His Fastball, Not Nerves". The New York Times. Retrieved April 21, 2014.
  12. ^ Diamos, Jason (July 7, 1997). "Hardscrabble Dream: Road Winds Slowly for Brien Taylor". The New York Times. Retrieved April 21, 2014.
  13. ^ Curry, Jack (September 29, 1994). "No Regrets as Taylor Rebuilds His Fastball". The New York Times. Retrieved March 2, 2012.
  14. ^ Curry, Jack (December 29, 1993). "Surgery Finishes Yankees' Taylor for 1994 Season". The New York Times. Retrieved March 2, 2012.
  15. ^ Nobles, Charlie (February 27, 1996). "Taylor Struggles To Recover Control". The New York Times. Retrieved April 21, 2014.
  16. ^ Chass, Murray (November 23, 1996). "Bonilla's Compass Points to Miami". The New York Times. Retrieved April 21, 2014.
  17. ^ "Ex-Yankee Signee Brien Taylor Is Cut". The New York Times. June 27, 1999. Retrieved April 21, 2014.
  18. ^ "Man charged with cocaine trafficking". Jacksonville Daily News. March 1, 2012. Retrieved March 2, 2012.
  19. ^ Glanville, Doug (June 29, 2012). "Dream to Nightmare". The New York Times. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
  20. ^ "Former Yankees pitching prospect Brien Taylor sentenced to 50 months in prison on drug charge". Fox News. November 7, 2012.

External links

Achievements
Preceded by
First overall pick in the MLB Entry Draft

1991 		Succeeded by

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