TCU’s Brayden Taylor named 2023 Collegiate Baseball Player of Year by SABR Dallas-Fort Worth chapter
DALLAS – TCU’s Brayden Taylor has been chosen as the recipient of the 30th Howard Green SABR Metroplex Collegiate Player of the Year Award, while East Texas Baptist University’s Sayers Collins was selected as the 12th annual SABR Metroplex Carroll Beringer Award College Division Player of the Year Award by SABR’s Ernie Banks-Bobby Bragan DFW Chapter.
The prestigious college baseball awards honor the memory of Green, the local SABR chapter’s longtime president, and Beringer, a former major-league pitching coach who was a great supporter of college baseball in the area.
Taylor, a 6-1, 180-pound junior from West Jordan, Utah, put the Horned Frogs on his back just after midseason and carried them to the NCAA College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
Taylor clubbed a team-leading 23 home runs while driving in 70 runs to top coach Kirk Saarloos’ crew and helped the Frogs capture 18 of 20 games at one point to advance through the Big 12 tourney, the Fayetteville Regional, and the Fort Worth Super Regional over Indiana State to the College World Series, where TCU finished 2-2 and tied No. 1 seed Wake Forest for third place.
The No. 19 selection of the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2023 MLB Amateur Draft also topped the Frogs with 77 runs scored, stole 14 bases without being caught, and banged out 80 hits with 15 doubles with a .308 average, .631 slugging percentage, and 1.061 OPS.
Collins produced arguably the top 2023 season and all-time best career showing for ETBU as a 6-3, 250-pound senior right-hander from Frisco, Texas.
The 2023 ABCA All-America first teamer and American Southwest Conference Pitcher of the Year rolled to a 12-2 mound mark with a 2.64 earned run average, 16 starts, four complete games, school-record 135 strikeouts in 99 innings pitched, 32 walks issued, and 72 hits allowed. Opponents batted .199 against him as he paced the Tigers to a 42-15 overall record under coach Jarred Hood.
Collins also was second team All-America by D3Baseball.com, first team All-Region 10, the Region 10 Pitcher of the Year, and first team All-ASC as a senior. The senior righthander set an American Southwest Conference career standards with 10 ASC Pitcher of the Week kudos, ETBU strikeouts with 329 and victories with 29. His 12 wins in 2023 represented another Tigers single-season mark.
Previous winners of the Howard Green SABR Metroplex College Baseball Player of the Year are: Scott Malone, TCU, 1993; Jason Parsons, DBU, 1994; Johnny Issom, Texas Wesleyan, 1995; Karl Chatman, DBU, 1996; Brandon Harper, DBU, 1997; Royce Huffman, TCU, 1998; Cody Sundbeck, DBU, 1999; (co) Jon Browder, DBU; Pat Hannon, Texas Wesleyan, 2000; Mike Hall, Texas Wesleyan, 2001; Terry Trofholz, TCU, 2002; Clayton Jerome, TCU, 2003; Hunter Pence, UT Arlington, 2004; Lance Broadway, TCU, 2005; Drew Holder, DBU, 2006; Sam Demel, TCU, 2007; Evan Bigley, DBU, 2008; Matt Otteman, UT Arlington, 2009; (co) Michael Choice, Texas-Arlington; Matt Purke, TCU, 2010; Jason Krizan, Dallas Baptist, 2011; Boomer Collins, Dallas Baptist, 2012; Duncan McAlpine, Dallas Baptist, 2013; (co) Brandon Finnegan, Preston Morrison, TCU, 2014; Brandon Koch, Dallas Baptist, 2015; (co) Darick Hall, Dallas Baptist; Luken Baker, TCU, 2016; Austin Listi, Dallas Baptist, 2017; Devlin Granberg, Dallas Baptist, 2018; Jake Guenther, TCU, 2019; no award in 2020 due to COVID-19 shortened season; Jackson Glenn, DBU, 2021; Tommy Sacco, TCU, 2022.
Carroll Beringer Award: Chase Brown, UT Dallas, 2012; Elvin Rodriguez, Northwood, 2013; Jake Howeth, Texas Wesleyan, 2014; Brandon George, UT Dallas, 2015; Conner Combs, East Texas Baptist, 2016; Luis Roman, Texas Wesleyan, 2017; Kiki Menendez, Texas Wesleyan, 2018; Casey Combs, East Texas Baptist, 2019; A.J. Liu, UT Dallas, 2020 and ‘21; Joseph Barfield, Texas Wesleyan, 2022.
For more information, please contact Bo Carter at bcarter@footballfoundation.com or (214) 418-6132.
Originally published: July 21, 2023. Last Updated: July 21, 2023.