Robert Taylor/pagetext
From SABR Encyclopedia
Taylor was born in Kerrville, TX and grew up in Ingram, TX where he attended Tom Moore High School. There, he played baseball from 2001-2004 and earned 4 All-district honors, 2 district MVP awards, 1 All-State honor and was named to the Region XIV Texas-New Mexico All-Star team. Altogether in high school, he hit .528 with 28 homers and 143 RBIs.
After high school, Taylor attended Laredo Community College. In his first season with them, he hit .297 with 14 homeruns. In his second season, he had a impressive batting average of .414 with 12 homeruns. He was a NJCAA All-America Honorable Mention and was named to the All-Region First Team.
That same year, Taylor played with the Anchorage Bucs in the Alaskan Baseball League, hitting .261 with 3 homeruns, and was also drafted by the Las Angeles Dodgers in the 36th round of the 2006 draft, but opted not to sign.
In 2007, Taylor transferred to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock where he hit .297. That year, he led the team in slugging percentage (.485), RBIs (39), total bases (98) and runs scored (33). During the summer, Taylor played with the Harrisonburg Turks of the Valley Baseball League, a collegiate wood-bat league, hitting .352, 3rd best in the loop.
The following year, Taylor was a senior at UALR, where he played along side his brother Darrenn. He went on to have an excellent season, leading the team in homeruns (10), RBIs (41), total bases (111) and slugging percentage (.620). On top of that, he hit .369, earning him a spot on the First Team All Sun Belt Conference, as well as a spot in the 2008 MLB Draft. One June 6th, he was selected by the Florida Marlins in the 25th round (748th overall) and signed later that month.
Taylor ended his career with UALR in the top 5 all-time in homerun (17) and doubles (32). He began his professional career in June of 2008 with the Jamestown Jammers of the New York-Penn League. He made his professional debut on June 20th in a game where he went 1 for 4 with 2 RBIs. He remained with Jamestown for the rest of the season, hitting .224 with 5 homeruns and 18 RBIs in 38 games.
Taylor's first full season of professional baseball came a year later in 2009. He began the year with the Greensboro Grasshoppers of the South Atlantic League before being sent Jamestown again. He continued playing there for a good portion of the season before once again being sent to Greensboro, where he played for the remainder of the season.
On July 11th of that year, while with Jamestown, Taylor hit a grand slam in a game against the State College Spikes, the first ever by a visiting player at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. Just a few days later on the 16th, he hit another important homerun, a walkoff homerun in the bottom of the 9th the win the game for Jamestown. Altogether, Taylor hit .263 with 3 homeruns and 20 RBIs in 29 games with Jamestown. Less impressively, he hit .212 with 2 homeruns and 12 RBIs in 22 games for Greensboro.
