Jameson Taillon pitched three innings against the New York Yankees’ A-ball team on Saturday at Pirate City. He put up a dominant performance, needing only 31 pitches to get through the outing. I did a feature on Taillon prior to this start, and in the feature he mentioned that Pittsburgh Pirates pitching coordinator Jim Benedict has been working with him on removing a jump in his delivery, which will allow him to keep the ball down. This was the first start for Taillon since they started working on that, and it seems to have had an immediate impact, as Taillon was working down in the zone through this whole start.
In the first inning, Taillon was sitting around 94-95 MPH, and hit 96 twice. He threw one curveball and one changeup, and had a perfect inning. In the second he was sitting at 95 MPH. He was wild on a changeup, throwing it over the batter’s head at one point, although it was only one pitch. He allowed a broken bat single on a 93 MPH fastball, although that was erased on a tailor made 6-3 double play. Through two innings he only had 24 total pitches. In the third, Taillon worked in the 93-94 MPH range, topping out at 95. He threw seven pitches, all fastballs.
Below is video of each pitch that Taillon threw on Saturday.
Tim started Pirates Prospects in 2009 from his home in Virginia, which was 40 minutes from where Pedro Alvarez made his pro debut in Lynchburg. That year, the Lynchburg Hillcats won the Carolina League championship, and Pirates Prospects was born from Tim's reporting along the way. The site has grown over the years to include many more writers, and Tim has gone on to become a credentialed MLB reporter, producing Pirates Prospects each year, and will publish his 11th Prospect Guide this offseason. He has also served as the Pittsburgh Pirates correspondent for Baseball America since 2019. Behind the scenes, Tim is an avid music lover, and most of the money he gets paid to run this site goes to vinyl records.
Helluva job you’re doing, Tim.
Thank you.
Helluva job you’re doing, Tim.
Thank you.
I think that Jameson can help us sooner than expected. I think he is going to cruise through minors quickly, can’t wait.
Tim,
I posted this over at minorleagueball.com, once again in an attempt to increase your following here. If this isn’t cool, just let me know and I won’t do it again. Thanks once again for all of the great work you do.
I respect the work that John Sickels does, and I noticed that he liked the last one. As long as he doesn’t have a problem with you posting it on the site, I don’t have a problem with you posting it.
i cant believe i just watched all of that….