With their 17th round pick in the 2022 MLB draft, the Pittsburgh Pirates selected right-handed pitcher Jaycob Deese out of Houston.
Deese recently turned 22 years old, and he stands in at 6’1″, 195 pounds. He spent two seasons at Galveston College putting up big strikeout numbers before transferring to Houston. He played summer ball in 2020 and had a 3.86 ERA in four starts, though he only worked 9.1 innings. In 2021, he had a 4.46 ERA, 1.50 WHIP and a 52:22 SO/BB ratio in 66.2 innings for Houston. This season he had a 5.19 ERA, a 1.51 WHIP and a 62:33 SO/BB ratio in 85 innings.
According to this tweet below from Perfect Game, he was sitting 91-93 MPH with a slider as his go-to pitch.
Jaycob Deese (‘22 Elig) has been excellent thru 5 for @UHCougarBB. Living 91-93, lots of strikes & low-80s SL has been go-to; big one to get out of a jam here. #PGDraft pic.twitter.com/lv9MCKWXkg
— PG College Baseball (@PGCollegeBall) April 15, 2022