Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Two Underrated Players to Watch
By Noah Wright
Po-Yu Chen
Po-Yu Chen was one of the Pirates’ international signees in 2020. Chen was considered Taiwan’s top high school prospect. Chen seems to be very confident with all of his offerings, rarely hesitating to throw any certain pitch.
Chen isn’t a flamethrower, though he could add more velocity as he ages. He only is in the 89-92 MPH range right now. Though he is only 19 and by the time he’s 22-24 years old, he could be closer to the 92-95 MPH range. He also throws a curveball with 10-4 movement according to FanGraphs that sits around 78-80 MPH. His second breaking ball is a slider with 11-5 movement that comes in around the low-70 MPH range. Between the two offerings, his slider is his better breaking pitch. He’ll occasionally throw a change-up, but hasn’t thrown it enough to get a good reading. But to have three pitches with distinct movement and velocity is a plus. Though he may not throw hard, his strong command will help make up part of his lower velocity.
So far, Chen has pitched extremely well with the Pirates’ Florida Complex League affiliate. He’s tossed 21 innings allowing just one earned run. He’s struck out 26, has allowed just 13 hits, and, impressively, has yet to walk a batter. 20+ straight innings without allowing a walk is very impressive and shows that he has very good command of his offerings.
It’s pretty easy to overlook Chen. He’s a very young prospect and isn’t among the team’s higher end ones. But he’s a control-oriented pitcher who has a good amount of projectability. Even a slight uptick in velocity like I stated earlier, and not seeing any effect in his ability to command his fastball, could lead him to being a Miguel Yajure-like pitcher. Not too many low-to-mid-90 throwers who’s best tool is their command standout on prospect boards.