BLAKE TAYLOR
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LEFT HANDED PITCHER
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Born: August 17. 1995 Height: 6’3″ Weight: 210 Bats: Left Throws: Left Drafted: 2nd Round, 51st Overall, 2013 How Acquired: Draft High School: Dana Hills (CA) HS Agent: Paragon Sports International |
WTM’S PIRATE PLAYER PROFILES |
Taylor is a projectable prep left-hander whose performance has been inconsistent so far but who has very good potential. He currently throws 89-91 with good movement, and has reached 94 in the past. He has good size for a lefty and the Pirates are no doubt hoping he’ll add at least a little velocity. Taylor has a good curve and, like most prep pitchers, hasn’t thrown a change much yet. His command needs to improve. Taylor throws from a three-quarters slot and scouts like his delivery. One interesting factor with him is that he’s unusually young; he won’t turn 18 until over two months after the draft. Baseball America ranked him as the 55th best prospect in the draft and other services have also ranked him in the 40-60 range. It’d be helpful if he develops, because left-handed pitching is not a strength in the Pirates’ system. He had a commitment to Hawaii, but signed quickly and should head to the GCL. Taylor signed for $750,000, which was well below the slot value of $1,065,400.
2013 Taylor had a good debut, holding opponents to a .104 average. His walk and K rates weren’t good, though, so the low number of hits was clearly fluky, but he had a high groundball rate and allowed no HRs. Taylor is very young, so it’s unlikely the Pirates would move him up to West Virginia. He’ll probably be at Jamestown next year. |
STATS
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Baseball Reference–Minors Fangraphs MiLB.com
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CONTRACT INFORMATION
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2014: Minor league contract |
PLAYER INFORMATION
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Signing Bonus: $750,000 MiLB Debut: 2013 MLB Debut: MiLB FA Eligible: 2019 MLB FA Eligible: Rule 5 Eligible: 2017 Added to 40-Man: Options Remaining: 3 MLB Service Time: 0.000 |
TRANSACTIONS
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June 6, 2013: Drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2nd round, 51st overall pick; signed on June 14. |