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All Jameson Taillon Posts

WTM’S PIRATE PLAYER PROFILES

Taillon’s offerings have been widely discussed on the internet.  His fastball sits in the 92-96 range and has reached 98.  He throws a hard curve with a big break that is considered a second plus pitch.  His slider needs more work and he hasn’t had to throw a changeup much.  Like most HS pitchers, he’ll have to work on the latter.  Some concerns arose about Taillon when he got hit hard in  a couple starts early in the HS season, something that generally doesn’t happen to pitchers with his stuff facing HS hitters. He sometimes gets his fastball up, which probably accounts for the five HRs, which is more than you’d expect to be hit off a pitcher with his talent.  The concerns seemed to evaporate late in the season, though, as Taillon drew frequent comparisons to Josh Beckett.  Some commentators, such as Baseball America and Perfectgame, consider him among the best HS pitching prospects ever, with BA rating him the 17th best draft prospect of the past twenty years.  His ceiling is that of a number one starter, potential that the Pirates lack at the major or minor league level.

Signing Taillon figured to be a tough task.  Unlike Machado, he’s not represented by Scott Boras, but by the Hendricks Brothers.  They’re no easier to deal with than Boras, however, and Taillon had a scholarship to perennial NCAA power Rice.  As it turned out, the Pirates signed him on deadline day for a bonus of $6.5M.  He signed too late to pitch in the minors in 2010, but instead went to fall instructional league.

2011
A:  2-3-0, 3.98 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 92.2 IP, 2.1 BB/9, 9.4 K/9 

Taillon opened the season in extended spring training, but made a much-ballyhooed debut with West Virginia in late April.  He spent the season in the rotation, with strict pitch counts designed to keep his innings down.  He pitched mostly as expected, except that his fastball at times was surprisingly hittable.  Opponents hit .249 against him with nine HRs, which is good but not dominant.  The problem seemed to stem largely from Taillon getting pitches up, which was a concern in HS.  His curve was mostly unhittable, but he generally didn’t throw it a lot in order to focus on fastball command.  His velocity was mid-90s, as advertised.  His other offerings still need some work.  Although it wasn’t overwhelming, most observers seemed to consider his debut season a success.

Taillon will head to Bradenton, where part of the focus will be increasing his workload steadily.  If he pitches well enough, the Pirates may try to promote him to Altoona, but that’s unlikely to happen until late in the season.  He remains one of the top pitching prospects in baseball.

Baseball Reference — Minors
Fangraphs
MiLB.com