North Shore Nine

This will be a series weekly of standout performances from players in the Pirates’ Minor League System. Usually, there will be one player featured each from the Indians, Curve, Grasshoppers, and Marauders. However, the Indians are the only ones to play so far, so we will highlight 3 players who stood out from their opening series vs the Louisville Bats.

#1: Paul Skenes

The #3 prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline was completely dominant in his AAA debut to open the 2024 season. Paul Skenes did not allow a hit or walk, and struck out 5 of the 9 batters he faced on Saturday. Despite this objectively ideal performance, it still doesn’t tell you the full story of how dominant Skenes looked. His fastball was casually sitting at 100, which he was able to place in the zone with pinpoint accuracy. He generated 12 whiffs against the 9 batters that he faced, and only allowed a single hard hit ball. His changeup was sitting 94-95 mph as well with a nasty drop to it. Combined with his sweeper-like slider Skenes had the Bats having fits at the plate. The stuff is MLB ready, hopefully he doesn’t need much time getting on 5 days rest because he arguably is the best pitcher on the team when he arrives.

#2: Quinn Priester

It’s hard to out perform Paul Skenes’ line from this weekend, but Quinn Priester was trying his hardest to do so. Sent to AAA after an encouraging Spring, Priester has continued to impress with his improved mechanics as he pitched a beautiful 5.2 innings on Sunday. He was not perfect, walking 1 and giving up 1 hit and 1 earned run, but he went toe to toe with Reds young starter Nick Lodolo. Over 76 pitches, Priester generated 9 strikeouts while limiting hard contact throughout the start. He has mostly abandoned his 4 seam fastball, which got murdered in the majors last season. Instead, he is focusing on a slider/sinker mix with his curveball being thrown as a devastating 3rd pitch. His whiff rates were excellent all around, generating 20 swings and misses. However, his curve ball sat at a staggering 63% whiff rate against the Louisville hitters. His sinker, a pitch to contact pitch, got whiffs nearly half the time. These rates are not sustainable but considering the issue Quinn had generating strikeouts last year this is an improvement that can inspire lots of hope.

#3: Kyle Nicolas

I was looking for a hitter to include but I don’t consider Jake Lamb or Billy McKinnie prospects and Liover Peguero and Nick Gonzales struck out too many times to make the highlight, so instead I will go with Kyle Nicolas. Like Gonzales and Peguero, Nicolas really struggled with facing MLB pitching, specifically his control. He pitched 2 innings over the weekend, and did not give up a single hit or run while striking out two. He is still a little wild, walking 2 batters in his opening appearance, but settled down and retired the side in 7 pitches on Sunday. Nicolas joins the many options the Pirates have to throw into their bullpen at any given moment, and the stuff is at an MLB level, but unless he is able to throw it in the zone more consistently he will be in Indianapolis for a long time.