I hope he inspired some of our students and reminded them that coming from a small town is not a negative. Here, when somebody is successful, we all take part. And in tragedy, we all pull together.

Each year, I take it upon myself as dean of students to go and talk to the freshman band members by themselves. I let them know that in order to be a part of the Southern University Marching Band, they don't have to take certain physical or mental abuse to be a part of the band.

We felt like, with the success that he had at Double-A, [it was best] just leave him there and let him complete a solid year at Double-A. And I think he benefited from that.

He'll get some innings under his belt [and] pitch in some big-league games. Our thought process is to send him to Triple-A, put him in the rotation and have him to continue to develop. If he continues to do well, there's a chance realistically [that] we'll see him in Houston at some point during the season. We don't expect that to happen out of Spring Training. We're going to keep an open mind about it, but realistically, we see him gong to Triple-A.

You hear about Fernando and Jason, and everybody kind of forgets about Taylor, because he had surgery, his numbers last year were just so-so. He's missed some time. But he's excited. If he goes Triple-A, it won't be a disappointment. Hopefully things will go well in the spring, and we'll see what happens.

This is about the time that you see an increase in velocity. The scar tissue from the surgery is pretty much done. A player usually gets a comfort level of being over the surgery, and I think that's where Taylor is at this point. His arm feels great and he's got a lot of confidence now.