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Pirate City Notes: Camp Day Headlined By Two of the Most Promising Young Pitchers

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BRADENTON, Fla. – The Pirates have no shortage of top young pitching prospects in their system. They saw Jameson Taillon make the jump to Pittsburgh last year, and could see Tyler Glasnow make the same jump this year. They saw Mitch Keller have a breakout season in the lower levels, with Gage Hinsz quietly being one step behind him.

There are also guys who have the stuff to be more than just back of the rotation starters in the lower levels, and two of them were pitching today. Taylor Hearn went up against Luis Escobar in today’s camp day action at Pirate City, facing off in the A-ball game while Clay Holmes and Austin Coley pitched in the Indianapolis/Altoona game. Hearn and Escobar are two guys to watch in the lower levels due to their stuff, and the chance of them emerging as some of the top prospects in the system.

The Pirates acquired Hearn last year as the second piece in the Mark Melancon trade, and his addition to Felipe Rivero could make that deal look like a steal for years. He’s a tall lefty who throws in the mid-90s as a starter, showing no effort at all in his delivery. His biggest problem has been a lack of control, and that was on display today with a few walk issues. Some of those happened when he was working on specific pitches in situations, primarily his slider. But this wasn’t a one-time thing, and he’s been working on some small adjustments to his delivery aimed at better command.

“It’s still a timing thing,” Hearn said of the delivery changes, which involve him starting facing the plate, rather than from the stretch, in order to get to his backside better. “Other than that, everything is feeling good. The stuff and everything is there. I’m going to continue working hard in flat ground and throwing programs.”

The slider has shown some promise in the last year, but Hearn was working on it in a few different situations today, while also struggling to rebound with the fastball when the slider didn’t work for him in those situations. He’s only been throwing the pitch for a year, and it shows promise for how little he has thrown the pitch.

“It’s actually been feeling pretty good,” Hearn said. “I’ve been putting a lot of work into it, and it’s starting to show.”

Overall it wasn’t a good day for his control. It wasn’t a good day for control from Luis Escobar either, who was using a lot of effort in his delivery, leading to less than half of his pitches going for strikes. Escobar can hit 97 MPH, but was topping out at 95 today. Part of the reason he could have been amped up — and this is only speculation on my part — was that Rene Gayo and Orlando Covo were in camp today watching the games.

Covo signed Escobar, and told me that this was the first time he’s seen him pitch since he was signed. He went to see him in the DSL in 2014, but Escobar went down with an appendectomy. The Latin American scouts don’t get a lot of chances to see their players once they reach the US, which means they can sign someone, and then see a totally different person a few years later once the player develops (shameless plug: Covo said he uses our site to keep track of how his signed players are developing).

It wouldn’t be a surprise if Escobar was trying to overthrow with Gayo and Covo watching. Then again, just like with Hearn, this isn’t a one-time deal. There are a lot of moving parts with Escobar’s delivery, and it seems he has added a bit this year, dropping really low in a crouch during his drive to the plate.

In both cases, Hearn and Escobar have the stuff to be more than back of the rotation guys in the majors, but will need to figure out their control problems to make that happen. It sounds difficult, but it’s not impossible — that’s the same thing Keller and Hinsz did last year, fixing their control to emerge as top prospects.

Camp Day Notes

By Wilbur Miller

With a camp day and intrasquad activity, it was a good day to see some of the Pirates’ more interesting pitching prospects.  There were top guys, like Taylor Hearn and Braeden Ogle, and some dark horses as well.

Hearn may have the highest ceiling of any of the pitchers who threw today, as he showed his usual, easy mid-90s velocity and a sharp slider.  He was wild, though, walking quite a few and going deep into counts.  It was a similar story for Ogle, who threw 94-96 but had trouble locating and got hit some, including the triple by Will Craig.

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Another one of the Pirates’ better pitching prospects who took the mound was Luis Escobar.  He was throwing 92-94, which was a little lower than he sometimes is, with a change and slider.  Escobar also got hit a bit, including a HR by Alexis Bastardo.  (For some reason, there always seems to be more offense in intrasquad affairs than in other minor league exhibitions.)

Lefty Dan Runzler, a major league veteran who’s on a minor league contract, threw two innings.  He showed a 93-94 mph fastball with a lot of movement, and also threw a lot of sliders.  Runzler pitched himself out of the majors with control trouble and that was evident today, although it wasn’t drastic and didn’t keep him from throwing two scoreless innings.

The Pirates sent out several young pitchers with significant velocity.  Joel Cesar made another appearances, having a fairly quick inning despite a leadoff walk.  Cesar has almost no pro experience, yet the Pirates are giving him some chances this spring against full-season hitters.  His velocity sat around 95, which is a little less than it’s been in the past, but his control was noticeably better than it was last fall despite still not being good.  Cesar is on the small side for a righty, but gets a remarkable amount of extension with a long stride in a high-effort delivery.

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Another lesser-known pitcher today was lefty Oddy Nunez.  In contrast to Cesar, he’s a tall pitcher at 6’5”, and he’s filled out some since last year.  A year ago he was only throwing in the 86-88 mph range, but today he was up to 88-93.  He throws from a three-quarters angle, which might give left-handed hitters trouble.  He has a short-armed delivery, but this seems to let him hide the ball well.  Nunez pitched in the GCL last year and won’t turn 21 until after the season, so it’ll be interesting to see whether the Pirates push him up to full-season ball.

A third pitching project who threw today was Holden Helmink, who signed just recently as a minor league free agent.  Helmink threw 94-95, but will have to improve his control.

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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