Scouting the Pirates system 2023: Best Breaking Ball

A look at the best breaking pitches in the Pirates system

Photo Credit: Ryan Palencer

‘Scouting the Pirates system’ is taking an in depth look at the players in the organization, and how has the best tools. Each article will highlight a different tool, with each writer on the site pitching in who they believe has the best.

While there is something satisfying in seeing a pitcher blow a fastball by a hitter, it can be just as entertaining seeing them completely fool someone with a great breaking ball.

When used in unison, a good breaking pitch can really help elevate a fastball, and vise versa.

Just looking at a breaking ball, it’s important for it to have enough bite on it for the hitter to chase, but the best of the bunch will be able to throw it for strikes just as well.

With a deep crop of pitching prospects, it was easy finding several who had very good breaking balls.

Quinn Priester

It wouldn’t be too crazy to say that Priester’s debut in the majors didn’t go as planned. The former first round pick put up a 7.74 ERA in 10 games (eight starts) with the Pirates this past season, not the best starts to a career.

A lot of that came from his fastball/sinker that both incredibly hittable, and that he struggled with the locations of those pitches.

Priester had been long known for his curveball, at one point acknowledged to be one of the best of its kind in the minors. He eventually added a slider to give hitters a different look, and is now armed with two very solid breaking pitches.

The slider particularly has become a reliable pitch to get some swing and miss with. While with Triple-A Indianapolis this year he put up a 44% miss rate with the slider, and there wasn’t much drop off once he hit the majors (41%).

Jared Jones

As the season started to wind down I began wondering if Jones was destined for a bullpen role, as he became more reliant on his fastball/slider, ditching the rest of his pitches.

It was an opportunity to showcase just how elite both of his pitches are, with Jones picking up a 35.8% miss rate with the slider with Indianapolis. As mentioned in the fastball article, Jones leads all Pirates minor leaguers in strike outs since making his debut, and it’s not relatively close, a big part in which is his slider.

Colin Selby

He’s a perfect example that you need to have some sort of control that plays at the next level, as the stuff is lights out, but it was anyone’s guess where it was heading.

While with Indianapolis this season, Selby put up an incredible 50.8% miss rate with his slider, with it dropping to ‘only’ 41.8% in the majors.

It’s still an incredible effective pitch, when he can throw strikes.

WTM: Paul Skenes

The scouting reports give his slider a 70 and he showed it in his brief debut.  It has a lot of horizontal movement and produced swings and misses at a high rate in college.

Other notable

Kyle Nicolas made the switch over to the bullpen at the end of the year and it really let his stuff shine through. Once jumping up to Indianapolis, he put up a 42% miss rate with his slider.

During my trip to Greensboro, Joshua Loeschorn really impressed me with his slider, which you could already tell it was a strong pitch from the numbers he put up with it in Bradenton. It had a sharp, two-plane break, that he threw for strikes and was able to get hitters to chase and miss.

Anthony Solometo is already a hard pitcher to hit due to his delivery and deception that comes with it. That really helps his slider be that much more unhittable at times. He gets a lot of horizontal movement on it, and I could probably make an incredibly long highlight reel of him making lefties look silly with it.