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You Can See Why the Pirates Like First Round Pick Quinn Priester

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It’s easy to see why the Pirates liked and drafted prep right-hander Quinn Priester with their first round pick tonight. An hour after he was selected, Priester met with the media via conference call. His voice was hoarse from the last day and tonight’s pick, but everything he said made him sound like he was already in the Pirates’ system.

The Pirates have a good track record with developing pitchers out of high school, and Priester acknowledged that a few times.

“I know that through their minor league system, they develop high school guys really, really well,” Priester said, while also saying that he likes how the Pirates focus on developing players off the field. “I’m just fired up to get in an organization like that, that puts such an emphasis on player development.”

The Pirates have been successful developing prep pitchers into top prospects using a lot of methods that Priester has already incorporated into his development. The first thing is putting them in a weight training program to add strength, especially in the lower half, allowing them to fill out their frame and add velocity.

Priester has already focused on this, adding strength to his lower half prior to the 2019 season, and adding velocity in the process.

“I think it’s strength in my lower half,” Priester said on the source of the added velocity. “I know this offseason that’s a thing I definitely wanted to focus on. I think once I built up my lower half, I was able to get a few ticks on that fastball. I think that really improved [other pitches] as well, getting up to lower 80s with my breaking ball, and two-seam in the low 90s.”

Priester has a four-pitch mix. The four-seamer has hit 97 MPH, and is the pitch he feels he has the most command over, with the ability to throw it in any count. Priester said that he uses his two-seam running in to right-handers and away from lefties, trying to generate weak contact and ground balls. That pitch has been in the 92-93 MPH range.

The curveball is a future plus pitch, and Priester describes it as his best pitch. He says he can throw it in any count for a strike, or out of the zone to get swings and misses on chases.

As for the changeup, he hasn’t had much of a need for the pitch in high school with his fastball and curveball combo. But he recognizes the importance of the pitch, and the need to throw it and develop it more.

“I think the foundation is set with that pitch,” Priester said. “I think I know a grip I like, and then I definitely am starting to get more of a feel for it.”

The Pirates stress the changeup development, and have put more of an emphasis on the pitch at the lower levels. The biggest initial hurdle is finding a grip that is comfortable, followed by learning the arm action of the pitch to make it look like a fastball out of the hand. If Priester has a grip that he likes, then he’s already well on his way to developing that pitch.

The interesting thing about all of this is that Priester has never had a pitching coach, and has taught himself all of this development by studying successful MLB pitchers.

“I’m really excited to get more formal pitching coaches, and such a fantastic organization that develops pitching extremely well,” Priester said of joining the Pirates.

Priester loves watching baseball, and studying pitchers on YouTube, trying to get ideas to incorporate on the mound. He’ll see a pitcher who does something similar to him, and will try to make that adjustment. The big pitchers he focuses on are Kyle Hendricks, Jake Arrieta, and Noah Syndergaard.

“It’s just more of learning visually from other people who are the best in the game. For me, it was on YouTube, looking up slow motion videos, Pitching Ninja, that sort of thing. If I could pick up one little thing to make me better, it would absolutely be worth it.”

It’s probably not going to be much different once he joins the Pirates. They have studied video for years in their development process, much in the same way that Priester has done.

Priester was a two-sport athlete, also playing wide receiver. He received an opportunity from Northwestern to play both sports, but committed to TCU for baseball, which is a commitment he’ll almost certainly be breaking to join the Pirates. The multiple sports helped him to make some of the mechanical adjustments on his own.

“I think being a multiple sport athlete has helped me to be much more dynamic on the mound, and being able to just be athletic, and to make changes, and realize changes, and be more aware of my body.”

It will be interesting to see how Priester develops once he enters the system. The Pirates typically have a hands off policy where they don’t make any adjustments with a prospect for the first few months he’s in the system. It doesn’t sound like they’ll need much of a transition and learning period, since Priester’s development mirrors a lot of their own methods.

The raw tools look great, with good velocity and movement on his fastballs and the potential for a plus out pitch. But the x-factor for a lot of players comes down to their attitude toward adjustments and their ability to be coached, which Priester clearly doesn’t have any issues with. I’d expect him to sign quickly and join the GCL this year, with a chance to get an aggressive push to Greensboro next year if his development goes well.

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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