Pittsburgh Pirates: Taylor Hearn has been Dominant

The Pittsburgh Pirates acquired Taylor Hearn in the Mark Melancon deal with the Washington Nationals.  Hearn has been very good since joining the Pittsburgh Pirates minor leagues.

Taylor Hearn has been a highly sought after prospect over the last four years.  In fact, he has been drafted by teams four times.  The first was in 2012 when the Pittsburgh Pirates made him their 22 round pick.  He passed on his commitment and attended junior college.  Over the next two seasons he was drafted twice out of junior college is the 36th and 25th round respectfully.  He then left San Jacinto college and headed to Oklahoma Baptists University to finish his college career.  The move paved off and he became a fifth round draft pick by the Nationals in 2015.

Hearn has the look of your typical raw pitching prospect.  He stands at 6 feet five inches tall and is filled out at about 205 pounds.  His best pitch is his fastball, he has a long, lose arm and is able to sit around 95 miles per hour consistently in starts and can ramp it up close to 100 when he wants.  His fastball also has good movement on it causing a lot of soft contact and swings and misses.  He also throws a plus slider, and a change-up that is showing improvement.

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Hearn has really been dominant since joining the Pittsburgh Pirates organization.

The big left-handed pitcher has appeared in eight games and has made three starts.  He owns a 1-1 record with a 1.99 earned run average.  In those eight games he has a really impressive 14.3 strikeouts per nine innings pitched. His strikeout to walk ratio is strong also sitting at a 3.6 strikeouts to every one walk.  Hearn started in the bullpen with the Power, but joined the rotation over his last two starts.

One of the biggest concerns that surrounds Hearn is his ability to command his pitches.  Like most, big, hard throwers, Hearn has had an issue with walks.  However, in his last two starts Hearn has shown a strong command.  He has only two walks in those starts and had racked up 15 strikeouts.  In those two games he combined for a total of nine innings pitched.  Think about that, Hearn in basically on complete game, struck out 15 hitters.  Really impressive stuff.

Taylor Hearn’s regular season is over with the Power.  Now there is a chance that he will join High-A Bradenton for their playoff run.  If not, Hearn likely will pitch in winter ball, as he missed the beginning of the year with a broken foot.  The Pittsburgh Pirates will likely want to get Hearn more innings.

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When we first acquired Hearn I was very high on him. H earn has the size and stuff to be really good starting pitcher in the majors.  If he continues to show strong command next year as a starter than he will continue to get oppurtunities to start.  He likely will start in High-A next year and should be a top 15 prospect in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization.