NewsTeagarden tuning up in the AFL
Catcher working on offense during second trip to Arizona
By Rush Olson / Special to MLB.com
10/28/09 8:36 PM ET
What circumstances dictate that a player who spent 162 games on a 25-man roster in the summer would find himself on an Arizona Fall League team in October?"Taylor [Teagarden], even though he was in the big leagues with us all year, didn't play a lot. He got right around about 200 at-bats," said Scott Servais, director of player development for the Rangers.
On Monday, an injury allowed the Rangers to add the catcher to the roster of the AFL's Surprise Rafters, and he should play his first game this week. Teagarden, who expected to play somewhere this winter, is embracing his second trip to the AFL in three years.
"I'm down here to get as many at-bats as I can, work on my swing," said Teagarden. "For the amount of playing time that I didn't get throughout the course of the season, I'll hopefully make up for that a little bit during the time that I'm out here and just try to work on my offense. I'll be catching quite a bit, too -- get some innings underneath me and have a little something to look forward to going into Spring Training."
The AFL named Teagarden its 10th-best prospect after his 12-game showing in 2007. He made the Majors the next season and now finds himself the Rafters' oldest position player and the only one with experience at the game's highest level. In some ways, not having to prove himself makes it easier this time.
"When I was here before, I was just finishing up the year at Double-A," Teagarden said. "Now I've got a year and a month or two underneath me in the big leagues. The guys that are here are a little bit younger than I am, so I'm just trying to relax. There's no pressure or anything. Just go out here and play the games. It's a really good environment to just try to work on things."
Still, he knows that meeting his AFL goals could lead to the realization of greater goals -- helping the Rangers win more games and extending his own Major League career.
"From a team standpoint, we did a lot of good things this year. We didn't finish where we wanted to, but for me, defensively, I thought I was OK," he said. "Offensively, I need to be a lot better. That's one of the main reasons I'm out here. To be a big league catcher, you've got to be able to do it on both sides of the ball."
Rush Olson is a contributor to MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
