32.5 F
Pittsburgh

Pirates Prospects Daily: Jared Jones Continues Incredible Development With Altoona

P2Daily
Jared Jones

Published:

Reading time: 4 min.

In the last three years since starting to cover the Pirates farm system on a more in-depth basis, I’ve been lucky to see some great pitching performances in person from some of the system’s top prospects.

I saw Roansy Contreras strike out eight batters over six shutout innings during the 2021 season in what was his fifth outing with the organization.

Last year I saw Luis Ortiz (4 IP, ER, 6 K), Mike Burrows (4 IP, 2 H, 6 K) and Kyle Nicolas (four perfects innings, 6 K) all pitch in a four day span.

Last night, I had a chance to see Jared Jones pitch six no-hit innings before a seventh inning home run break things up.

In my brief time going to minor league games, I know not many are there to actually watch the game, which is fine. There are times when a pitcher is dealing and gains interest from even the most disinterested.

Roansy had an incredible electric atmosphere to his outing, and by the end of it, everyone was gasping as he continually slung mid-90s fastballs by hitters over the course of his six innings.

On Thursday night, Jones got a very generous applause as he exited his game, from the home crowd as a visiting player.

Jones has long had the stuff to be an elite prospect, his first professional pitch picked up at 99 mph on the radar gun with the Bradenton Marauders. In 229.1 career minor league innings, he has 286 strikeouts (28.7 K%), and that’s consistently being one of the youngest players at the level he’s pitched in over the last three seasons.

Control has been one of the biggest concerns for Jones, but he’s in the middle of another season in which his walk rate has dropped, and only issued one free pass on Thursday.

He mixed in a changeup on several occasions, getting a couple of called strike threes with it, showing his repertoire is still expanding. After hitting a batter trying to connect on a back foot slider in the first inning, he didn’t shy away from the pitch and threw it again later, getting a swing and miss the second time around.

Jones has always been an interesting prospect, as his fastball/slider combination always seemed to put him on a path to be a late innings reliever if the command never came around.

Now that it has, it creates an all new type of projection for him, and he gives the Pirates something that they don’t have a lot of in the majors right now.

A starting pitcher who not only throws in the upper 90s (they have those), but can also generate swing and miss with their fastball. When we’ve seen some of the rotation pitch, it’s generally been because their fastball has been too hittable.

While having a swing and miss fastball isn’t a say-all, be-all necessity, it eliminates a lot of other factors pitchers can’t control when the ball is put into play. It also continues to allow his other pitches to continue to play up more.

While Ortiz and Quinn Priester are the most ‘ready’ to pitch in the majors, it may be safe to say that Jones has slowly developed into the best pitching prospect in the system, giving the greatest mix of ceiling and floor that you could ask for from a young pitcher.

Daily Video Rundown

Still fresh up from Greensboro (catcher gear is all green still), Abrahan Gutierrez is quickly making an impact with the bat, picking up one of the two hits on the day for the Altoona Curve, this one being a double.

Anthony Murphy
Anthony Murphy
Anthony began writing over 10 years ago, starting a personal blog to cover the 2011 MLB draft, where the Pirates selected first overall. After bouncing around many websites covering hockey, he refocused his attention to baseball, his first love when it comes to sports. He eventually found himself here at Pirates Prospects in late 2021, where he covers the team’s four full season minor league affiliates.

Related Articles

Latest Articles

Pirates Prospects Daily

© 2024 Pirates Prospects