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How Jameson Taillon’s Two-Seamer Became His Primary Fastball in Just Two Weeks

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CHICAGO – In Jameson Taillon’s second MLB start, he was absolutely dominant, shutting down the Mets for eight shutout innings. The most surprising thing of the outing wasn’t the success he had, but how he had that success.

Taillon worked heavily off his two-seam fastball, using it 52.8% of the time. That was up from 28.6% of the time in his MLB debut. In fact, as someone who prides himself on having the most up-to-date information on Jameson Taillon, this two-seam usage had me worried. I had just called the pitch a situational offering last week in my Taillon scouting report. I saw him last month in Indianapolis, and didn’t notice the two-seam usage. We had people watching him all year. How did we miss that the two-seamer was such a big pitch for him?

It turned out that the heavy usage of the two-seamer was recent. Very recent, in fact.

“If you asked me a couple of weeks ago, I’d probably call it a situational pitch,” Taillon said. “Just seeing hitters’ swings, uncomfortable swings, weak contact, ground balls, guys squared up on my four-seamer more often. It’s one of those things, the more I threw it, the more confidence I got. Similar to the changeup, too. The more I throw it, the more I realize it’s pretty good. I can actually use it. It probably started out 70% four-seam and 30% two-seam, and now it’s probably the other way around.”

So how did Taillon go from the two-seamer being a situational pitch to an offering that he throws over half the time in just two weeks? It all began in his final start with Indianapolis.

“He wasn’t throwing it a lot in Triple-A,” Pirates Manager Clint Hurdle said. “I talked to Dean Treanor repeatedly about it, and Dean continued to try and encourage him. So that was kind of a breakout party for him the other night, with the volume of two-seamers that he did use.”

Brian Peloza talked with Treanor in Indianapolis this week about the pitch, and the quality that Treanor saw in the offering.

“It was good,” Treanor said of the two-seamer. “Whenever he threw it this year, and he didn’t throw it very often, it was very good. If he’s going to have success at that next level, and I think it came out in that second start, he’s got to throw that pitch. He just can’t rely on that four-seam fastball. I think he got caught here with, because he can command the four-seam fastball, he wanted to throw that. He needs that two-seamer up there.”

Taillon had conversations with all of the coaches, but it wasn’t until finally sitting down and breaking down the video that he realized how effective the pitch was.

“I talked to some of the coaches, Stan Kyles in Triple-A, and watching video, we were able to check some things out,” Taillon said. “Contact rate, who was hitting the ball hard off of what pitch. Pretty much said let’s just try it out [using it more often], see how it works, and now I’m just running with it.”

The 52.8% usage wasn’t a fluke and wasn’t just one start. Taillon has fully embraced the pitch, to the point where that’s now going to be his go-to fastball moving forward.

“I’m to the point where I would call it my primary fastball,” Taillon said.

We’ve covered how Taillon went from his four-seamer to his two-seamer in just a few weeks. But how did the two-seamer get to this point, where it could be his primary fastball?

The History of Taillon’s Two-Seamer

The Pirates have a strategy with a lot of pitchers entering the system in the lower levels, especially the high school guys: They take away the two-seam fastball until the pitcher can command his four-seam fastball. In Taillon’s case, the immediate focus was on his mechanics, aiming to reduce the drop in his delivery, with a goal of getting his four-seam fastball to the point where it wasn’t so flat and up in the zone.

Taillon threw a two-seamer in high school, but the Pirates took the pitch away from him. They returned it right before he reached Double-A in 2012. Despite the time away from the pitch, he really didn’t change the grip, but did change how he threw it.

“It’s tough to recall the high school grip, because I was literally just chucking that as hard as I could,” Taillon said. “It’s a grip I really haven’t messed with too much. It’s one I picked originally. I think it’s pretty typical, classic. I’ve really rolled with it, and tried to get that one better, as opposed to messing around with different grips and stuff. I don’t think I threw it too much in 2012 and 2013. After the rehab, once my delivery was cleaned up, my command got a little better, I thought that was a good time to start kind of trusting it and throwing it more.”

The two-seamer was just added as a situational pitch — a role it kept until a few weeks ago. Now, the four-seam is the situational offering.

“The two-seamer for me was kind of originally a show-me pitch,” Taillon said. “When I got it back in pro ball, it became a situational pitch. 1-0 counts, 1-1 counts, runner on first, ground ball count, little scrappy hitter who you don’t want to mess around with. You kind of just want to put him on the ground first pitch. But now, instead of being a situational pitch, my four-seam has kind of swapped with that. Now the four-seam is more of a situational pitch.”

One of the things that helped recently was Taillon’s focus on his mechanics during his Tommy John recovery. That helped him get his four-seam fastball down easier, while also making the two-seamer much improved. That might have been the biggest change, leading to the pitch becoming much more effective than it was in the past.

“I’d say I actually get more sink on it as far as run,” Taillon said. “A little more angle. I have more angle in my delivery now. Downward plane and movement is definitely a little better.”

Breaking Down the Pitch

Some of you might remember an article I did two years ago on the two-seam fastball. I talked with several pitchers at the time who threw the pitch, including heavy sinkerballers Charlie Morton and Jared Hughes. The general consensus that I got was that the biggest issue people have with the two-seamer is the tendency to try and manipulate the pitch. This involves trying to force certain movement, or make it break a certain way, or even getting your fingers on the side of the ball, rather than on top of the ball when throwing.

What you want is to have a grip that works, and then just trust that the grip will do all the work when you throw the pitch. Fortunately, that has never been a problem for Taillon.

“I really never tried to manipulate it, or make it move too much,” Taillon said. “I pretty much just grip it, try to get the ball out on time, and it will rip down. I don’t want to be one of the guys who pronates it and tries to feel it or place it. I want it to be a power sinker. I want it to be tight, small, late movement. I want it to be hard. So movement-wise, I’m never really thinking too much about it.”

The grip is another big issue for pitchers. Some will try out different grips until they settle on one that they like. Taillon’s didn’t change much from high school until now, even after he got the pitch back in Double-A. He made some minor tweaks and adjustments, but the grip is another thing that hasn’t been an issue.

“I’m at a place with that pitch right now, where when I grip it, it just feels really comfortable,” Taillon said. “My fingers go on the exact same spot every time. Using the seams as a guide point. My fingers feel like they get in a good, consistent spot. There’s not much manipulation of it, nothing too crazy to it. I just kind of grip it and rip it.”

Jameson Taillon's two-seam grip.
Jameson Taillon’s two-seam grip.

As for commanding the pitch, the general trick is to pick a certain spot on the catcher to aim at, knowing that the ball will then end up at the desired location. Since the pitch moves a lot, you also have to aim for a certain area, rather than a specific spot.

“With a four-seam you really want to split the corners, go black or go off the plate,” Taillon said. “With a two-seam, I don’t like to go quite as fine with it. I might pick a third of the plate. So wherever his glove is at, I’m going to start it to the very beginning of the left side of his glove, and run it off that.”

The most challenging pitch to make, from a command perspective, is the two-seamer on the glove side, inside to the opposite handed hitters. You don’t want to run it too far in, or you’ll hit them. You don’t want to do the opposite, or it will break back over the plate into the barrel of the bat. And it’s difficult extending the two-seamer while also trying to get the same cutting action back in the zone. This is one area where Taillon does struggle.

“That’s a tough one,” Taillon said of the pitch. “You don’t want to over think it. Obviously you want to be fine with it. I get into trouble when I start worrying about command, and being perfect, and placing it. So for me, I’m going to think of angle, down in the zone before anything else, and I’m going to think power, aggression, and conviction. The command starts coming with that. I get into trouble when I try to aim it.”

This is where Taillon’s four-seam fastball comes into play now, throwing inside against left-handers. That’s not to say that he won’t try to attempt getting a left-handed hitter on the inside two-seamer.

“I almost had one the other night looking when I threw it to [Kelly] Johnson in the second inning,” Taillon said. “I almost got him on it. I’m messing around with it, trying to get comfortable with it, and see what works and what doesn’t.”

You can see where Taillon tried to get Johnson twice on the inside, including the fourth pitch, which he referenced above.
You can see where Taillon tried to get Johnson twice on the inside, including the fourth pitch, which he referenced above.

Taillon does a lot of things right with the pitch. He’s comfortable with the grip, and doesn’t try to manipulate it, instead letting the grip do the work.

“I think the grip and the mentality with a two-seam is aggressive,” Taillon said. “It’s power, it’s downhill. If you have that mindset when you’re throwing a two-seam, it kind of frees you up. You’re not trying to be too perfect, you’re not trying to place it. You can be aggressive with it.”

Because of the aggressive approach, the pitch comes in at 94-96 MPH, the same as his four-seam fastball. However, it’s the movement that makes the two-seamer impressive for Taillon.

“It’s the finish at the end for me that gets the barrel over the top of the ball,” Hurdle said. “The velocity is significant, but the whole game is about velocity in this generation we’re playing in right now. There’s velocity all over the place. The finish, that little bite at the end, that dive at the end, really played well for him the other night.”

The Attack Plan in the Majors

Taillon said that the two-seamer is going to be his primary fastball now, but don’t count out the four-seam. That will still be there as a situational offering, and a backup plan if his two-seam isn’t working one night, just like the rotation he has with his off-speed pitches, where he can fall back on his changeup if the curveball isn’t working.

“Right now I think I can say the two-seam will probably be the primary offering,” Taillon said. “It’s still not going to be 90%/10%. You’ll see both.”

You can expect to see the pitch a lot. Taillon started the game against the Mets this week with 16 straight fastballs, and many of them were two-seamers. His approach early in his MLB career is going to be establishing the fastball early, and adjusting from there, based on how the hitters handle the pitch.

“I think every game I start off looking to establish the fastball,” Taillon said. “And then until someone shows they can make the adjustment, I’m of the belief you just keep doing it. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That being said, I’m pretty aware that these guys have never seen me, just as I’ve never seen them. I’m aware that over time, I’ll probably need to make an adjustment, throw some more off-speed.”

With the way the two-seam has looked so far, and Taillon’s comfort and knowledge of what to do with the pitch, it seems like he’s primed for a lot of success with this new primary fastball. You can expect to see the pitch a lot more often, starting with tonight’s game against the Cubs.

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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