Pirates Arms, Josh Bell

by Woo! on Mar 14, 2026 8:57 AM EDT

There's been some good stuff coming out over the last week regarding the early performances of some of the Pirates top prospects. In today's Pittsburgh Tribune Review, DK talks about Cole, Taillon, and Luis Heredia. Included in that were two interesting tidbits of information.

Taillon, 20, was the $6.5 million No. 2 overall pick the previous summer, and he's 6-6, throws 96 mph and has a curve and changeup to match.

He had a 3.98 ERA over 23 starts in his pro debut with Class A West Virginia, a good figure in light of the Pirates limiting his innings and urging him to focus on simple fastball command.

"I understand what they were doing," Taillon said. "Instead of having five good pitches, I worked on trying to have three great pitches."

Expect him to be unleashed soon.

Heredia is the wild card. He's still a baby at 17, but a growth spurt this offseason has him up to 6-7, 220 pounds -- suddenly taller than the rest -- before he's gotten out of rookie ball.

"I'm stronger, too," Heredia beamed. "It's 98 now, I think."

The fastball, he meant.

Read more: Kovacevic: Kovacevic: Pirates invest in a new day - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/columnists/s_786382.html#.T2AajST5yws.twitter#ixzz1p5poFUyt

We now have Taillon himself admitting that the Pirates were limiting his pitches and, more importantly, we have Luis Heredia getting larger and seeing his fastball tick up to 98 M.P.H. at age 17. Wow.

Also, Tim Williams over at Pirates Prospects has been saying how improved Stetson Allie has looked this spring, and posted this video of him striking out Josh Bell on three pitches. (Williams also has said that Bell has looked great and it wouldn't shock him if Bell approached 30 home runs this season in Low-A)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4JU9ZbMRnw&feature=player_embedded

Seems like a pretty good time to be a fan of prospects in the Pirate's system.

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Comments

Thats what you get when you invest

good investment that is.

They now need to guide this guys through the Minor Leagues. I’m not Pirates fan but it sure is gonna be fun following the development of their prospects.

XandyMan Coming for you!!!!1

by DominicanDandy on Mar 14, 2026 10:19 AM EDT reply actions

It's going to be a great litmus test for their player development process

They seem to have a similar philosophy to the Braves as far as developing pitchers. Both seem to focus on developing commanding of the 3 primary pitches (FB, CH, CU/SL) over anything else. If the Pirates do a good job, they’re going to be fun to watch in a couple of years. I’m know I’m cheering for them

by nixa37 on Mar 14, 2026 2:44 PM EDT up reply actions

Here's

to hoping.

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by McCutchenIsTheTruth on Mar 15, 2026 12:50 PM EDT up reply actions

Heredia

while that does help his ceiling (height/velocity) it could easily hurt his development. He now has more moving parts in his delivery to work on and controlling a high 90’s fb on top of it? The trio will def be interesting to watch though, I’m rooting for the pirates to be good once again.

by hybrid on Mar 14, 2026 5:47 PM EDT reply actions

Why more moving parts?

He grew taller; he didn’t grow a third arm.

by Woo! on Mar 14, 2026 7:35 PM EDT up reply actions

Evidently

he just grew an inch, for some reason I thought he was shorter then 6’6 already so it probably shouldn’t effect him. Not sure if your joking or being serious (assuming joking but…) the phrase is commonly used for taller pitchers in that they have longer limbs and generally takes more effort to coordinate them all together into their delivery so they tend to take longer in their development at times to harness their stuff.

by hybrid on Mar 14, 2026 9:29 PM EDT up reply actions