A little a while ago I examined the high A stats of Pirate prospect Jameson Taillon against top 20 Baseball America pitching prospects. In the first post, I looked at players that I had judged to be top shelf, front of the rotation starters. How about other top 20 Baseball America pitching prospects that spent a few years as a starter in the Majors but never got ‘Ace’ status? How did they do at high A?
I plopped Taillon’s numbers in the middle of what I would consider to be two different types of starters. The top group is middle of the rotation guys. Then Taillon followed by bottom of the rotation guys.
As I noted in my previous post on this topic, I don’t pretend to know what all is going on with Taillon’s development (Fastball Academy and all). But I know that when I look at these numbers, I not enthused. He paled in comparison with the most of the guys who developed into front of the rotation starters. Josh Beckett, Yovani Gallardo, Brad Penny, Homer Bailey and even Kris Benson have better stats than what Taillon has accumulated. To me – based solely on the stats – he looks most like Gavin Floyd or maybe Matt Clement.
This doesn’t send me running for the Tylenol. But I’d feel much better if Taillon had put up numbers at high A that gave an indication that he was going to be a future ace. Based on what I’m seeing – and granted I’m certainly not seeing everything – I don’t feel confident that he will be a future MLB ace.
| Name | MLB Debut | Year | Age | League | W | L | ERA | GS | IP | HR | WHIP | SO/9 | SO/BB | FIP |
| Josh Beckett | 21 | 2001 | 21 | FLO | 6 | 0 | 1.23 | 12 | 65.2 | 0 | 0.716 | 13.8 | 6.73 | 0.79 |
| Chad Billingsley | 21 | 2004 | 19 | FLO | 7 | 4 | 2.35 | 18 | 92 | 6 | 1.272 | 10.9 | 2.27 | 3.30 |
| A.J. Burnett | 22 | skipped | A+ | |||||||||||
| Yovani Gallardo | 21 | 2006 | 20 | FLO | 6 | 3 | 2.09 | 13 | 77.2 | 4 | 0.991 | 11.9 | 4.48 | 2.25 |
| Edwin Jackson | 19 | skipped | A+ | |||||||||||
| Scott Kazmir | 20 | 2003-04 | 22 | FLO | 2 | 4 | 3.36 | 18 | 83 | 3 | 1.398 | 9.9 | 2.39 | 2.92 |
| Mark Mulder | 22 | skipped | A+ | |||||||||||
| Brad Penny | 22 | 1998 | 20 | CAL | 14 | 5 | 2.96 | 28 | 164 | 15 | 1.055 | 11.4 | 5.91 | 2.67 |
| Ben Sheets | 22 | 1999 | 20 | CAL | 1 | 0 | 3.58 | 5 | 27.2 | 1 | 1.337 | 9.1 | 2.00 | 3.27 |
| Kerry Wood | 21 | 1996 | 19 | FLO | 10 | 2 | 2.91 | 22 | 114.1 | 6 | 1.242 | 10.7 | 1.94 | 3.71 |
| Jameson Taillon | ?? | 2012 | 20 | FLO | 6 | 6 | 3.82 | 22 | 120 | 8 | 1.158 | 7.1 | 2.64 | 3.53 |
| Dylan Bundy | ?? | 2012 | 19 | CAR | 6 | 3 | 2.98 | 11 | 54.1 | 5 | 1.196 | 10.4 | 3.71 | 3.04 |
| Name | MLB Debut | Year | Age | League | W | L | ERA | GS | IP | HR | WHIP | SO/9 | SO/BB | FIP |
| Homer Bailey | 21 | 2006 | 20 | FLO | 3 | 5 | 3.31 | 13 | 70.2 | 6 | 1.005 | 10.1 | 3.59 | 3.17 |
| Kris Benson | 24 | 1997 | 22 | CAR | 5 | 2 | 2.58 | 10 | 59.1 | 1 | 1.045 | 10.9 | 5.54 | 1.74 |
| J. Bonderman | 20 | 2002 | 19 | CAL/FLO | 9 | 9 | 3.79 | 27 | 156.2 | 18 | 1.270 | 9.8 | 2.88 | 3.77 |
| Bruce Chen | 21 | skipped | A+ | |||||||||||
| Matt Clement | 23 | 1995-97 | 20-22 | CAL | 13 | 12 | 3.35 | 37 | 214.7 | 12 | 1.407 | 9.1 | 2.05 | 3.69 |
| Gavin Floyd | 21 | 2003 | 20 | FLO | 7 | 8 | 3.00 | 20 | 138 | 9 | 1.254 | 7.5 | 2.56 | 3.51 |
| Philip Hughes | 21 | 2005-06 | 19-20 | FLO | 4 | 3 | 2.27 | 9 | 47.2 | 0 | 0.699 | 9.7 | 8.50 | 1.69 |
| F. Liriano | 21 | 2003-04 | 19-20 | CAL/FLO | 6 | 8 | 4.28 | 22 | 117.2 | 6 | 1.428 | 9.6 | 2.78 | 2.83 |
| Jeff Niemann | 25 | 2002 | 22 | CAL | 0 | 1 | 3.98 | 5 | 20.1 | 3 | 1.082 | 12.4 | 2.8 | 4.15 |
| Carl Pavano | 22 | 1998 | 22 | FLO | 0 | 0 | 6.60 | 4 | 15 | 1 | 1.533 | 8.4 | 4.67 | 2.80 |
| Mike Pelfrey | 22 | 2006 | 22 | FLO | 2 | 1 | 1.64 | 4 | 22 | 1 | 0.864 | 10.6 | 13.0 | 1.84 |
| Kip Wells | 22 | 1999 | 22 | CAR | 5 | 6 | 3.57 | 14 | 85.2 | 4 | 1.307 | 10.0 | 2.79 | 2.95 |
| Bobby Bradley | - | 2001 | 20 | CAR | 1 | 2 | 3.12 | 9 | 49.0 | 3 | 1.306 | 8.4 | 2.30 | 3.40 |
EDIT: Added Dylan Bundy’s numbers at high A for 2012 after seeing the comment from BlueBomber72 below.