The Pittsburgh Pirates haven’t been shy about aggressively pushing their minor league players to levels based off their skill and not so much their age.
This led the Bradenton Marauders to be one of the youngest teams in their division last year, but it didn’t matter as they still won the Low-A Southeast.
One player from that team, among several, that got the push this year to Greensboro was right-handed pitcher Jared Jones. He also got the aggressive push to Bradenton last year as a 19-year-old (has an August birthday), so he will spend the year with Greensboro mostly at 20.
The 2020 second round pick didn’t take long to remind everyone why he was one of the most talented arms in the system and why the Pirates have had no problem aggressively pushing him through the minors for the second straight year.
Jones only needed 13 pitches (11 strikes) to strike out the side in the first innings, throwing primarily fastballs the entire time.
Of those 11 strikes he threw, he generated four swing and misses, three with the fastball. He needed six pitches to get the final two strike outs of the inning.
He was dialed in and rolled his way to seven strikeouts over 3 1/3 innings pitched. Some of the control issues that he had last year popped up, walking two and only throwing a first pitch strike to four of the final 11 batters he faced.
The control wasn’t horrible, just in spots, as he still threw 64% of his pitches for strikes (44-of-69), which is a slight increase from what he threw last year in Bradenton.
While Jones’ fastball was electric, he didn’t rely on it, especially as the game went on. In the third inning, as you could kind of see fastball losing some of its pop and command on it, Jones got the lead-off hitter by switching and leading with the breaking ball.
This is a small but subtle thing that I love seeing from young pitchers, especially ones with an arm like Jones. The ability to lead with the breaking ball and using the fastball off of it. Not relying on the fastball all the time, even when its that good. #LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/doQyUyOmqt
— Anthony Murphy (@__Murphy88) April 14, 2022
After jumping up 0-2 he used the fastball inside as a different look before coming back to the breaking ball getting the strikeout. It’d be easy for someone with a fastball like Jones to become over-reliant on it, and it was a nice touch of awareness to make this kind of adjustment.
There is still a lot of ‘max effort’ in his delivery that will always cause some to believe he is destined for the bullpen, but he pitched his way into some deep outings last year.
He’s also still just 20-years-old, so there is still a lot of developing to be had on his part, and while the Pirates were aggressive with his assignment, doesn’t mean they will be with his innings.
Depending on how hard they are managing his innings, it makes working on the effort in his delivery not as much a priority during the 2022 season.
Jones is one of the most impressive young arms in the system and has the kind of stuff that could be immune to the hitter friendly Greensboro confines.
