Adopt a Prospect - SP James Taillon

[JoshRedcay]

The prospect I will be adopting is Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Jameson Taillon. Here's a little bit more about him:

Full Name: Jameson Taillon
Born: 11/18/1991
Birthplace: Winter Haven, Florida
Height: 6' 6"
Weight: 225
Bats: R
Throws: R

MLB.com listed Pirates' starting pitcher James Taillon (No. 2 overall draft pick last year) as their No. 18 prospect out of 50. This comes as no surprise as Taillon is just a mere 19 years old fresh out of high school and already looks like he could very well be a future ace.

His 6'6 frame matched with his fastball, curveball, slider, and change-up which he can all throw for strikes, makes him a very deadly prospect. The sky really is the limit and as cliche as that sounds, it's fully the truth.

He's got a fastball in the mid-upper 90s, plus a slider and curveball that have already developed very well and continue to develop. His numbers in his senior year of high school were very impressive, pitching 62 innings and going 8-1 with a 1.78 ERA and 114 strikeouts.

He's probably going to start things out at low-A in West Virginia, but in just a few years he could be pitching for the Pirates in the majors. I'm excited to see how this one pans out, the Pirates may have finally made a valuable pick in the first round of the draft.

I will be tracking his progress throughout spring training and the MLB season as he works his way through the Pirates farm system.

[RickD]

Thanks Josh. I look fw to seeing what this kid has to offer.

[JoshRedcay]

10 Question Interview with SP Jameson Taillon courtesy of MiLB.com

MiLB.com: Though you're four years younger, you attended the same high school as Kyle Drabek. Have you had any contact with him or his father Doug about what to expect as a pro?

Jameson Taillon: Yes, definitely. We actually work out at the same facility and live about a mile apart. My girlfriend's family is good friends with the Drabeks, so I've talked with them a lot.

MiLB.com: I heard that you started playing golf last summer while you were waiting for the contract process to play out? How did that go?

Taillon: (Laughs.) Just terrible at first, but I'm getting better at it. I was probably shooting in the low to mid-90s toward the end of the summer. I played a lot with [Cardinals prospect] Shelby Miller, who's really good.

MiLB.com: Did you play the field and hit in high school or just pitch?

Taillon: No, I pretty much just pitched and sat. My high school is big and has had a lot of great players come through. Plus, it became obvious that my future was in pitching.

MiLB.com: Obviously being the second overall Draft pick is a big deal. At what point did you realize that you had a good shot at making a career out of playing baseball?

Taillon: It went in stages. Just making the varsity team as a freshman was a big deal at my school -- that was the year after Kyle Drabek and Paul Goldschmidt graduated. I didn't pitch too much that season, but I started to think that maybe I could play Division I in college. Then going into my junior year I started playing on some All-Star teams. When I started pitching with Team USA is when I really started to think about it as a possible career.

MiLB.com: What big leaguers did you look up to or model yourself after growing up?

Taillon: There's been a lot of bad stuff said about Roger Clemens lately, but I don't care about that. Steroids can't make you compete the way he did. I'm also a big fan of Josh Beckett -- he grew up about 15 minutes up the highway from me. The attitude of those guys, never backing down, really appeals to me.

MiLB.com: I know you're still figuring out your routine as a pro, but do you have any superstitions or favorite meals or music you listen to before pitching?

Taillon: Not really superstitions, but I definitely have a physical routine before pitching. I'm a big believer in warming up the right way and getting the body going. I always do the same exercises with resistance bands. And I guess I've had the same playlist on my iPod for about the last three years.

MiLB.com: How close were you to going to Rice University? [Taillon signed a letter of intent with Rice in Nov. 2009.] If you had, do you have any idea what you might have studied?

Taillon: I was really looking forward to going to Rice, but it was tough to pass up the opportunity with the Pirates. It's hard to say what I might have studied, but I've always been interested in kinesiology and physical therapy, especially related to sports.

MiLB.com: Had you been to Pittsburgh before the Pirates drafted you?

Taillon: I hadn't -- I knew about the sports teams a bit -- the Steelers and the Penguins -- and I knew that the Pirates had kind of struggled over the last few years, but I didn't know too much about the city. It's funny, though -- as soon as I was drafted it, seemed like everyone I knew had some connection to Pittsburgh. People were always telling me, "Oh, you've got to see this when you're there," and stuff like that.

MiLB.com: You were born in Florida, went to school in Texas and have Canadian parents. What teams, both in baseball and other sports, did you grow up rooting for?

Taillon: Mainly Houston teams. I went to a lot of Astros games, so it's pretty cool to be with a team in their division -- I've seen a lot of NL Central games over the years. I remember being excited when the Texans brought football back to Houston. That seems like just yesterday, but I guess it's been close to 10 years now.

MiLB.com: What do you do to relax away from baseball?

Taillon: I play a little golf now, and I like to do some fishing in warmer weather. I also play a lot of acoustic guitar, mainly Texas country stuff like Pat Green. I'm trying to learn some John Mayer, but he's a little advanced for me (laughs).

[JoshRedcay]

Jameson Taillon made his professional Spring Training debut Sunday afternoon (3/20) (Sorry I didn't have this sooner).

Taillon pitched two innings and allowed three hits, one run and struck out two batters against the Yankees' Class A team in Pirate City.

He has a four-pitch mix with his fastball sitting consistently in the mid- to upper-90s. That fastball touched 99 mph on the radar gun several times. Taillon's curveball and slider have already developed into solid secondary pitches, and the Pirates believe the changeup will come.

Taillon finished his senior year at The Woodlands High School with an 8-1 record, a 1.78 ERA and 114 strikeouts in 62 2/3 innings. The studious Taillon turned down a scholarship offer from national power Rice University and received an $8.5 million bonus from the Pirates.

[Vertigo O]

Since Josh is slacking a bit, I'll give a quick update on another one of my favorite prospects ... j/k JR

Taillon made his second start for West Virginia in the first game of a doubleheader on May 2.

He went four innings, gave up 2 hits, struck out 6 and walked none. A pretty impressive outing for probably the best Pirates pitching prospect in quite awhile.

Power's Taillon sharp in second start
by Chuck McGill
Daily Mail sports writer

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- On his sixth and final strikeout Monday night at Appalachian Power Park, West Virginia starting pitcher Jameson Taillon hurled a knee-buckling 83 mile-per-hour curveball that froze Greensboro left-hander Christian Yelich.

Yelich, the Florida Marlins' No. 3 prospect according to Baseball America, fanned twice against Taillon, a fellow 2010 first-round draft pick.

Both whiffs - the second one looking - came on Taillon's secondary stuff, even though the Texan's calling card is his mid-to-upper 90s fastball.

"What people don't know is I have a good curveball when I have the right feel for it," Taillon said after he tossed four scoreless innings in the Power's 3-0 win over the Grasshoppers in the first game of a doubleheader. "I had it tonight."

Taillon, a 6-foot-6 right-hander and the Pittsburgh Pirates' top prospect, was making his second career start Monday. His professional baseball debut last Wednesday was shortened to two innings because of rain.

His follow-up seemed more indicative of the bright future the 19-year-old starting pitcher possesses.

He threw 52 pitches, 37 for strikes. He didn't allow a run and lowered his ERA to 1.50. He struck out six batters, including five through the first two innings and the side in the top of the second. He had no walks, although he did hit a batter, and tossed a first-pitch strike to 10 of 15 batters.

Only three of those 15 batters managed hits before Taillon's closely monitored workload ended his night after four innings.

[Vertigo O]

Picking this up for 2012 ...

Marauders starting pitcher Jameson Taillon hurled five innings, striking out six while allowing no runs on just two hits, a pair of doubles by Jupiter’s Noah Perio.

Jameson Taillon's 2012 stats

Team	League	W	L	ERA	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	GO/AO	AVG
BRD	FSL	0	1	1.93	4	4	0	0	0	18.2	12	4	4	0	3	24	0.57	.176

[Vertigo O]

BRADENTON -- Heading into Thursday's game, it was safe to say Jameson Taillon was the best one-win starting pitcher in the Florida State League.

Bradenton's power righty posted a 1.76 earned-run average in his first six starts as a Marauder. But since he had received a total of six runs of support, Taillon had nothing more to show for his efforts than a 1-2 record.

By the time Taillon took the mound for the fifth inning Thursday, however, the Marauders had already staked him to a seven-run lead. Consequently, Taillon and the Marauders coasted to a 16-3 win over the Clearwater Threshers in front of 1,005 fans at McKechnie Field.

Taillon was his typically stingy self, throwing six scoreless innings with one walk and three strikeouts to raise his record to 2-2 and lower his ERA to 1.49.

http://www.bradenton.com/2012/05/11/...bradenton.html

It's been awhile since I updated Taillon's AaP. He continues to dominate for Class A-Adv Bradenton. I can't imagine it will be too long until he's promoted to Altoona.

Jameson Taillon's 2012 stats

Team	League	W	L	ERA	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	GO/AO	AVG
BRD	FSL	2	2	1.47	7	7	0	0	0	36.2	25	6	6	0	7	36	1.00	.189

[RickD]

Ranked #15 on the MLB Top 100 Prospect List.

Taillon really turned it on in a late-season shift at Double-A Altoona, winning all three of his starts while allowing three runs in 17 innings with an 18-to-1 strikeouts-to-walks ratio.