Getting To Know: Todd Glaesmann

As Minor League Baseball embarks on the final week of the season, Todd Glaesmann is wrapping up a breakout year.

After posting career-best numbers through 91 games with Bowling Green, the 21-year old joined the Charlotte Stone Crabs on July 25, and has not missed a beat. The Stone Crabs right fielder is batting .304 since his debut in the Florida State League, and his 20 home runs combined between Charlotte and Bowling Green are tied for most in the entire Rays organization.

Glaesmann has enjoyed a smooth transition from Low-A to High-A in 2012, but the move from high school to the pros was not quite as seamless.

This is the first full season Glaesmann has played in professional baseball since being drafted by Tampa Bay in the third round - 108th overall - in the 2009 draft out of Midway High School in Texas.

Glaesmann signed late in 2009, limiting him to just five games with the GCL Rays that year. Due to a series of injuries, he had not played more than 74 games in a season since turning pro. Last year he suffered thumb and elbow injuries that limited him to 210 at bats, a season in which he hit just .229 with four homers and 21 runs batted in.

Injuries have followed Glaesmann since high school, when he was a two-sport athlete at Midway.

With that in mind, Glaesmann had decided prior to his senior year to forgo the football season and focus solely on baseball, but ultimately sat out just one game before returning to the football squad.

"That first Friday came and I went to the game, and it was just miserable in the stands," he said.

"I knew I couldn't take any more and so I went back to the coaches and asked if there was still a spot on the team, and the team voted to have me back."

After rejoining the squad, Glaesmann suffered a broken right ankle during the football season that limited him to DH duties for the first part of the spring. The setback was not enough to prevent him from closing out a successful high school baseball career, poised to become a high selection in the MLB draft.

Three years later, Glaesmann has enjoyed his first healthy season since joining the professional ranks. This year he has combined to play 120 games between the Hot Rods and Stone Crabs.

Consistent playing time has certainly been a key factor in his success, but Glaesmann has also discovered a more positive approach toward each at bat.

"Jumping right into pro ball, the game is kind of real quick for you," he said. "My biggest problem was speeding the game up in my head, so this year my goal was 'slow it down and have fun.'"

Glaesmann noted that in the past he would often get caught up in the outcome of each at bat, allowing it to affect the next one.

Now his focus lies not in the end result, but the quality of each plate appearance.

"That's really my goal," he said. "Not necessarily getting hits, but having a quality at bat."

Glaesmann credits the time he spent in Australia this past offseason in helping him find a more relaxed approach at the dish. He spent the winter playing for the Canberra Calvary of the Australian Baseball League.

He compared the atmosphere of baseball in the land down under to that of an American high school game.

"Showing up to the ballpark, relaxing, not worrying about getting hits," he said, "just going out there and playing the game that I love."

Glaesmann hit .310 in 22 games with Canberra, and that success has translated.

This season got off to a relatively slow start, as he was hitting .247 through the month of April. Yet Glaesmann settled in to bat .293 through the next three months, earning a late-season promotion and a daily slot in the middle of the Stone Crabs order.

Glaesmann acknowledges there is plenty of room for development - he has struck out 117 times in 120 games this year - but the young outfielder appears to be on a path to success.

"Obviously I can still improve on a lot of aspects of my game, but I feel like I'm in the right direction right now."