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Brien Taylor, MR, Hackensack Bulls

Early life and MLB draft

Taylor was born in Beaufort, North Carolina, to parents Willie Ray, who worked as a mason, and Bettie, who was a crab picker at the local seafood plant. He was the second of four children, named for the lead character in the movie Brian's Song. Taylor attended East Carteret High School. In his senior season, Taylor threw 88 innings, striking out 213 hitters while walking 28. His fastball often hit 98 and 99 mph. In 2006, Scott Boras claimed that Taylor was the best high school pitcher he had seen in his life.[1]

In 1991 Taylor was drafted by the New York Yankees first overall. He was offered about $350,000 to sign a minor league contract, the typical amount given to #1 draft choices at that time. However, agent Boras (acting as an "advisor," because unsigned players were not allowed to have an agent at that time) advised the Taylor family that the previous year's top-rated high school pitcher, Todd Van Poppel, was given more than $1.2 million to sign with the Oakland Athletics, giving up a scholarship to Miami (Fla.) in the process. The Taylors held out for "Van Poppel money," even though they had less leverage because Brien's poor grades in high school prevented him from getting a major college scholarship offer. They then used a local junior college as leverage to get the Yankees to agree to their terms. 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."

Taylor was signed for $1.55 million 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.
[edit] Minor leagues and fist fight

Initially, the Yankees had hoped that like Dwight Gooden, Taylor would be ready for the big leagues at the age of 19. However they found he needed a better move to first base to hold base runners. In 1992 he was 6-8 for Fort Lauderdale, but with a 2.57 earned run average and with 187 strikeouts in 161 innings. The next year as a 21-year-old at Double-A Albany-Colonie, Taylor went 13-7 with a 3.48 ERA and with 150 strikeouts in 163 innings. He also led the Eastern League with 102 walks. Nonetheless, Baseball America named him the game's best prospect and he was expected to pitch for the Columbus Clippers of the International League in 1994, and start for the Yankees in 1995. The Yankees had asked Taylor to report to an instructional league so he could spend the winter of 1993-94 working on fundamentals. However Taylor declined the Yankees' request, claiming he was tired from the pressure of the season. He said he needed the rest and chose to remain near his North Carolina home.

On December 18, 1993 the normally mild-mannered Taylor suffered a dislocated left shoulder and torn labrum while defending his brother Brenden in a fistfight. The New York Times reported that Taylor confronted a man named Ron Wilson, who had fought with in Harlowe, North Carolina. Brenden suffered head lacerations in his fight with Wilson. Once Taylor found out his brother had been hurt, he and a cousin went to Wilson's trailer home to confront him. There, Taylor got into an altercation with Jamie Morris, Wilson's friend, and Taylor fell on his shoulder.[2] According to Wilson, Taylor attempted to throw a haymaker at Morris, and missed, which caused the injury (similar to how Sonny Liston dislocated his shoulder by missing a number of hard punches in his first fight with Muhammad Ali).

In the hours following the altercation Boras told reporters the injury was a bruise. However when the Yankees had Taylor visit Dr. Frank Jobe, he called the injury one of the worst he'd seen. Jobe, a well-known orthopedic surgeon, repaired a torn capsule and a torn labrum in Taylor's shoulder in a one-hour procedure at the Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood, California on December 28, 1993. Initially Jobe told Taylor that he would throw again with similar velocity and that his shoulder might even be more durable.[3] However, he was never the same pitcher again. When he returned after surgery, he had lost 8 mph off his fastball and was unable to throw a curveball for a strike. He was at Double-A before the incident but spent the bulk of the remainder of his professional baseball career struggling at Single-A. Taylor was able to get his fastball back into the low to mid 90's, and he had also filled out, gaining 35 pounds from when he first signed, however he had control problems.

Defecting to the MBBA= meeting Lorenzo Carbajal
In 1995, with the possibility of being assigned to the Yankees Gulf Coast team, Taylor decided that the only way to salvage his career was to leave the Yankees and sign with the MBBA. He signed with the Hackensack Bulls, who assigned him to their AAA team, the Gatlinburg Gunslingers. It was there that Taylor met the man who would save his career, Lorenzo Carbajal.

Carbajal was the Gunslingers pitching coach, but was also once a star hurler in his native Puerto Rico. Carbajal was on his way to being sigTakned by the New York Yankees when, in 1977, he tore his labrum much as Taylor did. When that injury happened, Carbajal was officially off the radar of big league teams. The MBBA teams sniffed around, but were skeptical as well. The Manhattan Myst were the most interested (Manhattan was Hackensack's predecessor, if you're wondering) but never offered Carbajal a contract, instead offering him a coaching job. Carbajal declined at first, continuing to pitch in Puerto Rican leagues with some success. It seems Carbajal had come up with a routine to combat the symptoms of his labrum repair. While most surgery patients lose their breaking pitch and speed off of their fastball substantially, Carbajal has found a way to combat that. Not being much of a talker, this secret remained with Carbajal for years.

Then when Taylor signed with the Bulls and came to Gatlinburg, Carbajal had history flash before his eyes when talking with Taylor. He described the system to Taylor, who was enthusiastic to succeed having surrendered most of his huge signing bonus to the Yankees to defect to the MBBA. He was on board. Carbajal had his first test subject.

Step 1: Develop multiple pitches.
"It only hurts to throw the curve when you're throwing it constantly," Carbajal explained. They worked to add a slider, sinker, and splitter to Taylor's arsenal. While he no longer had that one unhittable pitch, he now had six pitches with which to work. "You're no longer outhrowing them, you're outhinking them," Carbajal taught.

Step 2: Take two steps back to get one step ahead.
"You will struggle this year," Carbajal said. "Don't let it bother you." Taylor did struggle, going 3-8, 6.32 in 18 starts. "We accomplished a lot in that first season," Taylor explained. "I knew that the results didn't matter, but more so how I relearned pitching."

Step 3: Change your expectations.
"You aren't going to dominate anymore. You may not even be a starter in the bigs," Carbajal counseled. "Keep your options open and don't be afraid to continue to adapt." Taylor took this lesson to heart, and it paid off on July 31, 1997.

Taylor received a call from Carbajal that night informing him that the Bulls needed a long reliever, and he'd told him that Brien was the right choice. "I haven't relieved ever, but if that's my role in the big leagues, then so be it," Taylor said happily. "You've graduated now," Carbajal said. "Give 'em hell!"

On August 8, 1977, more than six years after the New York Yankees chose him over every other amateur player, Brien Taylor made his major league debut in an 11-2 win over the Atlantic City Gamblers. He pitched one inning of relief, giving up one hit, walking none, giving up no runs, and striking out one:

Bottom of the 9th - Atlantic City Gamblers batting - Pitching for Hackensack Bulls : RHP Ken Quinney
Pitching: LHP Brien Taylor
Batting: RHB Dwayne Johnson 0-0: Ball
1-0: Swinging Strike
1-1: Foul Ball, location: 2F
1-2: Ball
2-2: Foul Ball, location: 2F
2-2: Foul Ball, location: 2F
2-2: Strikes out swinging
Batting: LHB Flavio Luna 0-0: Ball
1-0: Ball
2-0: Swinging Strike
2-1: Ball
3-1: Fly out, F9 (Flyball, 9M)
Batting: SHB Ossian Fallon 0-0: Ball
1-0: SINGLE (Line Drive, 9S)
Batting: RHB Bobby Bushnell 0-0: Ball
1-0: Swinging Strike
1-1: Called Strike
1-2: Ball
2-2: Foul Ball, location: 2F
2-2: Fly out, F2 (Popup, 25F)
Bottom of the 9th over - 0 run(s), 1 hit(s), 0 error(s), 1 left on base; Hackensack 11 - Atlantic City 2

After he struck out the first batter he faced in the bigs ("The Rock"), Taylor pointed to the ground and then to his heart. 677 miles away in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, Lorenzo Carbajal was smiling.